


The Night Shift

by Ginclevertitle93



Series: The Night Shift [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-03 05:22:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 34,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14561805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ginclevertitle93/pseuds/Ginclevertitle93
Summary: Dipper gets Attacked by a large animal and things start getting stressful, turns out finding a cure is difficult when there's a lot going on. Thankfully he's got his stubborn sister along with family and friends to help, even if it means getting hurt...





	1. Firefiles

   

    Dipper held on to his sister’s hand as the twins made their way through the woods.

Mabel clung on to her jar of fireflies, careful not drop them while Waddles followed the two from behind. Dipper held the lantern out in front of them as they tried to find their way back to the mystery shack; with some paper scraps in his vest pocket that he found lying around hidden in the shack. Some were found scattered, some were found in packets or piles; Ford told them it was probably some old studies he never got around to finish; why they were separated from the journals he doesn’t remember, considering they were scattered and unfinished kind of explained a little bit though.

He didn’t actually read them that much tonight; however he did find one interesting entry on some weird hybrid canine creature.

“You’re sure this is the right way back, it’s getting kind of creepy out here.” Mabel said.

“I’m sure it is…I hope.”

“You hope?”

“Just stay close to me and we’ll be alright.” His grip tightened, he didn’t feel safe out here tonight, and he had been hearing strange noises while helping Mabel catch fireflies…a bit longer than he expected, he might of gotten carried away catching them.

Mabel looked away, feeling guilty as she did wander off a bit while chasing after some of the bugs, they’re so tricky!

“Dipper, if it’s my fault we’re lost, I’m sorry.” She said quietly.

Dipper looked back at her as he cautiously kept walking.

“What no, you didn’t do anything wrong; besides, if it makes you feel better, it’s kind of my fault too since I told Soos and Grunkle Stan I know my way around this place.”

“You mean you don’t know how to get back?” She sounded nervous and was starting to panic a little.

“No no no, I do! It’s just…well, I didn’t think we would have a hard time getting back…Look I do know the way back, I just made a wrong turn…” he stopped and looked around nervously. “A really bad turn…a hopefully non-fatal…bad turn.” he said anxiously.

“We’re lost aren’t we?” Mabel asked grimly.

Dipper was silent for a moment before reluctantly answering.

“Yeah we’re lost.”  Dipper sighed; he had a slight feeling of panic but kept himself together. “But I’m sure we’re still pretty close to the shack…” he sat down trying to get his thoughts together, he messed up pretty bad. He promised Soos and Mabel he knew his way back but he didn’t think it would be that difficult. He promised to go with Mabel to catch those bugs. He kept the lantern close to him as he was surprisingly cold. Normally most nights in Gravity Falls lately were warm, not tonight however; he just had to get them both lost tonight.  He shivered a bit as he hugged his legs, thinking of a way to get back to the shack.

Mabel approached Dipper, she wasn’t completely bothered by Dipper’s mistake, and she was prepared in case something like this happened.

Dipper heard her coming from behind and turned to her, he sighed.

“I know, I screwed up…I’m not mad at you at all for running off, I mean I promised you I would get us back home.”

She patted his shoulder.

“Hey, cheer up bro bro, don’t be too hard on yourself, remember that roll of thread I asked you to keep in your pocket?”

“Yeah?” Dipper did wonder why she asked him to hold on to such a thing.

“Can you please hand it to me?”

“Uh…yeah sure….” He took it out of his vest pocket and handed it over to her.

“Thank you! Waddles come here!” she called the pig over and she sat next to Dipper. She fiddled with the thread as Waddles sat in front of her.

Dipper observed her tying it around Waddles.

“Wait, are you…?” Dipper began to make sense of her actions.

 “Yep, I’m making him a leash. When I’m done, he’s gonna help us find our way back to the mystery shack!” she said cheerfully.

Dipper raised an eyebrow.

“Are you sure that’s going to work, I mean he is just a pig…”

“Come on, have faith in Waddles Dipper!” She replied.

“I do, I just don’t think pigs can find their way home like dogs do…”

“Have faith in Waddles! Have faith in the pig!”

“Alright, geez…I’m sorry for sounding like a jerk, but I do have one hundred percent faith in Waddles.”

“I knew you did all along…” she giggled as she playfully shoved Dipper; in response he gave a small smile back.

While tying a knot, out of the corners of Mabel’s eyes, she noticed her little brother shivering next to her, keeping the lantern close to him. She turned to her brother with a concerned expression.

“You ok, Dipper? You look like you’re freezing …”

Dipper couldn’t hide it from her, he smiled nervously.

“Yeah, it’s kind of chilly tonight for some weird reason, I’m fine, don’t worry about me.” He chattered a little.

“You’re freezing!?”

“I don’t know why, I’m confused as well! It’s usually hot lately! At least you have your sweater…and Waddles has hair or fur or whatever.”

Mabel smirked.

“It’s because you’re wearing shorts.”

Dipper scowled.

“Don’t worry I’ll keep you warm!” she snuggled up to him; Dipper made an uncomfortable reaction and moved away a little.

“So wait, did you know something like this would happen?”

“No not really, I just told you to hold on to the thread roll just in case we did get lost.”

“That means you knew something like this would happen…” Dipper frowned; she probably knew he would most likely get them lost.

“Hey, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared in case something bad happens, I can take care of myself too bro bro. Don’t give me that look, I just prepared in case you did get us lost, I’m not saying you would all the time! Come on cheer up!”

 

                After a minute or so, Mabel finished her leash.

“I’m done!” she announced.

Dipper turned and faced a little more to his sister as she handed the rest of the roll of thread to him.

The two got up from their place, Mabel picked up her jar and Dipper grabbed his lantern. Dipper gave Mabel an unsure glance while she smiled back.

“Alright, Waddles show us the way to freedom!”

The pig oinked and began to lead the way as Mabel held on to the ‘Leash’ and her jar. Dipper gave an amused humored look to Mabel.

“You’re sure this will work?” he laughed quietly to himself.

“Of course it will! I told you to have faith in Waddles.”

“You didn’t have faith in me about getting us back.” He said with a hint of sarcasm.

“I did, lighten up Dipper!” she smirked.

He playfully bumped her and she did the same back.

Some time passed as the two made their way home. Mabel’s idea seemed to be working as Dipper recognized the surrounding area.

The twins were silent as they stuck close together while Waddles led the way.

Mabel broke the silence.

“I wonder why they even call them fireflies…”

“Huh?”

“I mean why do they even call them fireflies, they don’t set things on fire.”

“…Because they can make their own light, Mabel?”

“So why not light-flies, glow flies or lantern flies? …Well, I guess they don’t sound as cool as fireflies.”

“There is an actual bug called a lantern fly, but they don’t glow at all.”

Waddles stopped and so did the twins as they spoke to each other.

“That’s dumb, why even call them lantern flies?”

Waddles looked around, ears perked.

“I don’t know, but they call firefly larvae, glowworms.”

The pig started to panic as he turned in circles anxiously. 

“Do they actually glow?”

“Yeah!”

“Then I hope my fireflies have babies then! Heh, glowing worm babies.”

He oinked loudly and tried scratching Mabel’s leg. The twins looked down at Waddles, both of their expressions curious and concerned.

“Waddles what’s wrong? We aren’t going to stay here silly…”

Dipper looked around as Mabel tried to calm Waddles; nothing seemed out of the ordinary…for Gravity Falls that is.

…Until he heard a low sound.

“Mabel…”

“What is it-?”

He shushed her as the sound seemed closer.

“What is it?” she whispered.

“Do you hear that?”

A low roar mixed with a growl was heard; it sounded something similar like a bear…but as more were heard, it began to sound more like something they’ve never heard before.

“Yeah…” Mabel answered nervously. “What was that?”

“I…I don’t know…just stay near me.”

 The source of the growls seemed to change direction each time the unknown creature made them.

“Can you see it?”

“I can’t see anything Dipper!”

“I think it’s circling us…we should just keep moving, we’re almost there anyway.”

“Kay…come on Waddles, keep going.” Mabel whispered. She tugged at Waddles’ leash, he was reluctant to move as he sensed the unseen creature; paralyzed by fear. 

“Waddles please…yeah that’s a good pig…”

Waddles wanted to leave fast; the twins hurried themselves, and another sound was heard.

“I think it’s following us…”

A small roar echoed.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know but it’s nothing I’ve heard before.” Dipper was starting to panic.

They swore they could hear the beast chasing them.

“It’s getting close, hurry Mabel!”

“Is it behind us?”

“I don’t know I can’t check right now!”

“Maybe I can-” Mabel was cut off by her own startled cry as she slipped and fell; and disappeared into a bush.  From Dipper’s perspective, it was almost like something _dragged her_ into the bush. Waddles fled in a panic, squealing constantly as he ran off into the woods.

Dipper’s eyes widen, his heart skipped a beat. Did…did something attack her? She’s not –

His mind raced with all sorts of terrified thoughts, fear and dread overwhelmed him and he could not think rationally.

“Ma-Mabel, no!” he screamed. “Mabel where are you?!”

“I’m down here!” Mabel sounded close…but what did she mean by ‘down here’?

Dipper snapped out from his fear and ran through the bush, he stopped and backed away abruptly when he thought he was about to step off a ledge. He had almost slipped and he had fallen on to one knee but managed to clumsily stand up again. He raised the lantern in front of him and the light revealed a rocky ditch in front of Dipper. It wasn’t that steep and was rather small…but at the bottom he found Mabel; she was still alive but she was holding her left ankle which appeared to be bleeding. She also had a thin cut above her right eyebrow which trickled; other than those injuries, she seemed to be fine. Mabel tried to crack a small smile, her jar of fireflies still intact and close to her.

“Mabel you’re alive!” he choked on his words a bit.

“Of course I’m alive silly.”

“Are you alright; what happened, did that thing attack you?”

“I’m fine…well mostly, my ankle hurts to move and I bumped my head.”

“Was it because of-”

“Nah, I just slipped and fell down, I didn’t even see it.”

“Oh man, that’s good…”The drained Dipper sighed. He lifted his head, closed his eyes and his shoulders drooped, he gave her a relieved smile.

“Here I’ll help you up…” he reached for her hand.

Mabel managed to grab his fingers gently…and slipped from his grip when something very heavy slammed her from the back, she was forced to the ground as a large creature pounced on her.

 

    It happened so fast, he didn’t even have time to react, Dipper was grabbing his sister’s hand and before he knew it…the creature just swiftly appeared and leapt on top of her, pinning her to the ground.  He had fallen back in horror as the big hairy beast landed on her. He could see the thing’s glowing eyes and large white fangs; but he couldn’t make out the rest of the creature. Thinking quickly, he picked up the dropped lantern and held it out…and saw a large wolf. His eyes widen.

He screamed out Mabel’s name.

 

    Mabel screamed in fear as she felt pressure being applied to her back, she felt sharp objects sinking into her skin, probably claws. She tried to escape but the beast held her to the ground. She cried and reached out for her brother, who was horrified at the sight as its claws sunk deeper into her back.

 

    It seemed to be toying with the both of them as it snarled; it had a clear chance to attack her...either that or maybe time seemed to be moving slow from Dipper’s point of view due to everything happening so fast.

Dipper glared at the creature and gritted his teeth.

“Let her go!” Dipper screamed.

He sprang to his feet; the wolf quickly reacted to this by picking up Mabel by the back of her sweater with its jaws and throwing her against one of the many trees in the woods; suddenly finding more interest in Dipper challenging it than her.

“Mabel!” enraged, Dipper took his lantern and started repeatedly smacking the creature across the face with it. He didn’t even hesitate; the sight of Mabel’s still figure enraged him. After enough hits, the beast could no longer take it and retreated back deep into the woods.

He breathed heavily, looking back to Mabel and then where the canine ran off to.

Dipper did not feel relief from this as the werewolf gave up rather easily. Why would the werewolf flee from being smacked around by a lantern; it could have just fought back and kill the two of them with ease, and yet all it did was antagonize them and leave. All of this was very strange for a werewolf…if it really was one; but he had something way more important to worry about right now.

He rushed over to Mabel’s aid; she was on her side and hugging herself; groaning as her spine hurt pretty bad. She was regaining her senses slowly; she shivered as she laid on the ground on her right side.

She wasn’t knocked unconscious from hitting the tree but stunned and in pain. She managed to get a glimpse of Dipper defending her from that big dog earlier; she would have joined in and helped him if her body didn’t hurt at that moment.

               

    “Mabel? Mabel...Mabel, wake up!”

“Ow, don’t shake me, I’m awake!” Mabel winced.

“Oh sorry…wait, have you been awake this whole time?”

“Yeah…it hurts to move though…”

Dipper helped her sit up and supported her back; he stroked it in a way as if he was looking for something; this creeped Mabel out.

“Uh…What are you doing? You’re starting to freak me out Dipper…”

“Did that thing bite you?” he said in a low nervous voice.

“What?”

“Did that thing bite you?” his voice was filled with more panic.

Mabel was feeling uneasy from this; Dipper knew something was unnatural about that thing.

“Well…I felt that thing pick me up-”

“It used its jaws when it did that…Did you feel anything like…like…” he trailed off as he found it difficult to think what to say next. For an odd reason, his brain just locked up there.

Mabel could sense fear in Dipper’s voice.

“Pain?”

“Yeah…did he get your back?”

 “No, I think he only bit my sweater, the only thing that hurt was being thrown against a tree…and when it held me down.”

Dipper leaned to his left and looked at her back, there was no sign of blood but she had some tears in her sweater; her undershirt was untouched.

“He didn’t bite you…good, oh good…”  He said in a weary tone. He hugged her in relief.

Mabel’s eyes trailed around in a sad manner.

“Dipper…what’s wrong, what was that thing?” He wasn’t telling her something. He looked away in sadness. “It’s not a dog, is it…you know what it is...”her voice quiet. She had a good guess of what the creature was.

“If it bit me would…would I be cursed or something?”

He looked at her sadly before giving her a nod; he had to assume the creature was a werewolf right now to avoid the worst.

“Yeah…He probably was attracted here by the smell of your blood.”

He looked around the woods then turned back to Mabel, he examined her injuries…she wasn’t safe.

“We have to get you out of here…” Dipper’s voice was stern yet soft.

He held her hand.

“Can you get up?

“Yeah…I-I think I can.”

Mabel wobbled to her feet; she was limping on her left foot.

“You can’t walk!”

“Yes I can, don’t be paranoid. It’s just sore…”

“Here I’ll help you, just hang on to my right shoulder.” He switched sides and held her left arm over his right shoulder, helping her walk. He retrieved the slightly broken lantern, having to turn the knob to relight it, and then picking up the glowing jar.

“Thanks Dipper…” Mabel slightly leaned against him as they both struggled to move.

Mabel winced as her foot hurt at each limp; she made some small moans as she forced herself to keep going. Dipper tightens his grip on Mabel’s arm, attempting to comfort her by trying to signal he was there for her.

“Hang on, we’re almost there…”

“I feel like that’s the seventh time you’ve said that tonight.” Mabel said with some tired sarcasm.

“Well this time I mean it.”

“You better.” She giggled. “I hope Waddles made it back alright, I’m worried about him.”

“I’m sure he did, he’s a smart pig.” He looked down in thought. “I’m hoping that thing that attacked us was that unnamed dog hybrid…whatever thing and not…well you know.”

“Same…What does that no name dog thing you were talking about do anyway?”

“Well it-” Mabel interrupted him.

“Hey, I can see the shack!” Mabel could see the lights from it shine from a few feet away.

“See I told you…you…” something felt off, he set down the lantern and searched through his vest pocket. His eyes filled with disbelief and rolled them.

“You got to be kidding me.”

“What now?”

He sighed “The scraps fell out of my vest...”

“Come on…” She was in disbelief, tonight just wasn’t their luck. “How do you even lose something that deep in your pocket?”

“Hey I didn’t think I would lose them too!”

She bumped him playfully to cheer him up; Dipper chuckled in response.

“Well anyway, they’re probably not too far away…”he looked over his left shoulder. “I swear they were in my vest just a while ago…oh they’re over there!” they were lying near where they exited from the woods.

“Do you wanna go back for them?” Mabel asked.

“I can’t yet; I need to get you inside…and I don’t want to make you turn around.”

“Aww, that’s so nice of you bro bro. It’s ok; I can get myself inside, my foot starting to feel better anyway.” She let go of him.

“You sure you can make it to the shack?”

“Dipper, its right in front of us…” Mabel said blankly.

“Oh, yeah…uh sorry that was a really stupid thing to say…haha…”

Mabel gave him an uncomfortable look.

“I’ll just get the papers…” he said sheepishly and ran back to the entrance of the woods, still clutching onto the lantern.

“You dork…” Mabel snickered quietly to herself.

“Heh almost lost you guys there…” he muttered to himself as he kneeled to the ground.

Then leaves’ being crushed underfoot was heard.

He flinched and quickly looked up when he heard the sound, was something following him? No he should stay calm, probably just a possum or raccoon…and hopefully not a bear.

He looked around nervously as he picked up the papers one by one; it might be that werewolf or hybrid or whatever that thing was. It probably wasn’t a werewolf; he knew there wasn’t a full moon tonight, maybe it was that unnamed canine thing? They looked similar to werewolves from what he saw from the messy sketch on one of the stray pages.

“Come on Dipper it shouldn’t take long to pick up a few papers!”

He snapped out of his thoughts and looked back at Mabel, putting the bundle of papers in his vest.

“Alright alright, I’m sorry; I just thought I heard something.”

 

    He shouldn’t have turned his back, or maybe shouldn’t have stalled.

He made a careless mistake, he let his guard down….he had left himself open for that moment, and exposed his weak spot. For that short moment, for that small mistake; was all that was needed for his attack.

Dipper suddenly felt like he was hit by a truck, at least he thought what being hit by a truck would feel like. It happened so suddenly that he lost his grip on the lantern. His shoulder felt as if it was on fire as something sharp entered it. For a second he was confused, but it didn’t take long for him to figure out what was happening. Everything within his vision was moving fast and blurred as he was carried off. The pain coursing through his body was too much to bear.

He let out a pained scream and then everything went black.

 

    “D-Dipper!” She screamed in horror.

Mabel was left with little time to react; in a matter of seconds her own brother was abducted by some animal right before her very eyes. Dipper’s expression at that moment was full of confusion, fear and helplessness; and his scream…She didn’t know what kind of animal it was as it happened so fast, but from what she could make out, it looked like a big dog…a dog. The same creature that attacked them earlier she assumed, it came back.

Maybe it was still angry from earlier.

Mabel didn’t think twice about the situation, she had to save Dipper.

Waddles cautiously peeked from the unlocked door, causing a creak. Mabel quickly turned to him, she sighed in relief that he was ok but right now she had to take care of her Bro.

“Waddles stay inside ok?”

He oinked in a frightened manner.

Mabel quickly limped into the woods, pushing herself to go faster despite her minor injury.

She picked up the dropped lantern, even more cracked than ever; and darted deep into the woods.

 

    “Dipper...Dipper, where are you?” Mabel cried.

She was starting to panic, she heard nothing from Dipper…he…he wasn’t dead was he?

“Give…Give me back my brother!” she yelled, determined to find him.

A roar was heard.

She whirled around trying to locate the direction of the sound; holding the lantern out. While looking around, something on the forest floor caught her eye, some red stuff…blood.

Her eyes widened with dread.

“Dipper, answer me please!” her voice trembled as she screamed.  
A shrub rustled.

Mabel turned to the shrub; and a giant beast leapt out from it.

Standing in front of her was a giant wolf; it had blood on its mouth…Dipper’s blood.

Mabel stood her ground; even though she was scared, she needed to save Dipper.

It snarled as it crept closer; Mabel backed away slowly, glaring at the wolf.

“I-I’m not scared of you; give – GIVE ME BACK MY BROTHER!”

The wolf responded by attempting to swipe her with its claws; she jumped back, dodging its attack.

“I’m not leaving without him! And you’re not taking me!”

The wolf lunged at her, she jumped out of its way quickly as her heart skipped a beat; it almost got her that time. She had to get rid of it fast but how? All she had was a lantern…hey, maybe that was it!

She could try lighting something on fire to scare it off, it should definitely work.

Acting quickly, she picked up a stick off the ground and unlocked the small window that kept the flame inside the lantern.

“Come on come on!” Mabel had to get this to work fast.

The wolf crept around her slowly, observing her actions.

She poked the end of the stick in the flame; starting a small flame on the stick.

Though after a few seconds, she learned the hard way that fire doesn’t burn as fast as she thought it did.

The flame was pretty small and was spreading at a turtles pace; it wasn't even burning like a torch. She needed it to burn like a torch but as it turned out a stick would not do. Actually now that she thought about it, they usually used oil, and a bundle of wood, among other things.

Thinking this over, she should have been more prepared for this.

She smiled nervously as the wolf snarled at her, its jaws half open. Mabel stuck her burning stick out at the wolf, in a rather sad (she admits) and desperate attempt to scare the beast off. The wolf was unamused and swiped it out from her hand.

She backed away in fear.

She attempted to swing the lantern at it but it kept dodging. She whimpered; she didn’t know what else to do.  The thing readied itself.

“N-no!”

The beast lunged at her once again; Mabel screamed as she fell back. She dropped the lantern and closed her eyes.

The lantern shattered; unable to take anymore abuse, its glass covering the flame gone, its oil spilling out.

And then the forest floor burst into flames.

The wolf let out a pained roar.

The sudden heat and roar startled Mabel and she opened her eyes. She crawled backwards, shielding her face with her arm from the bright flames. She scrambled to stand up, slipping and falling back down a few times before finally getting back on her feet.  She tried to catch her breath but accidently inhaled some smoke.

‘It’s smoky already.’ She thought to herself. She covered her mouth and nose with her right hand to protect herself from the smoke; her eyes hurt a little but despite this she tried to keep them open.

She turned her attention back to the wolf, who had been crying out in pain throughout her recovery. The fire thankfully separated wolf from Mabel; who on the other side was clawing its face. From what she could see, the wolf wasn’t on fire but it seemed to be trying to remove something from its eyes, maybe it got burned a little from the sudden fire or got ashes in its eyes. The wolf continued to cry out before turning away and running blindly into the woods.

Mabel took this as her chance to escape the area, safely away from the fire. She reached a clearing some distance from the flames, she could still see the light from the fire but at least she could finally catch her breath without all the smoke. She took in deep breaths as fresh clean air filled her lungs again.

She coughed roughly, her throat still irritated from the smoke; she doubled over just a bit as she hacked.

She wiped her eyes, stingy and watery from the fire.

She looked around with worry and fear and began to cry out

“Dipper…Dipper…DIPPER!”

 

                He lied weakly some distance from the fire and Mabel, looking limp and broken; if anyone came upon a child like him in his state, they might believe he was dead.

But he wasn’t…

Dipper could hear muffled and distant cries, his senses returning slowly; he groaned as he regained feeling in his body first. The voice was beginning to sound familiar and brought a sense of relief over him.

 “…Ma…Mabel?” his voice tired.

He groaned as he awakened, opening his eyes slowly and coughing heavily; apparently it was cold enough tonight to see his own breath. He found himself looking at the forest floor from his left side, lying in mud and leaves, the monster nowhere in sight. He seemed to be alone from what it looked like at the moment; he could still hear Mabel cry out for him.

“Mabel…!”  He winced as his chest hurt from trying to call Mabel, even just breathing felt painful.

He wished he didn’t regain the feeling in his body now.

He was freezing pretty bad, even his insides felt cold; his whole body felt like it was made out of ice. The cold air just made him ache even more.

What happened again, everything happened so fast. He tried to reorganize his thoughts; last he remembered he was heading back to the shack…when something attacked him…

How far in the woods was he, how long was he out, and why was he left by the creature?

He would have to ask these when Mabel finds him…Mabel, was she ok? She didn’t get hurt by that thing again did she? He hoped she didn’t receive any more injuries from any sort of thing.

He coughed again, much harder this time…he felt his nose run and even felt it touch his mouth…the taste was bitter.

It wasn’t mucus.

He wiped his nose with his right hand and examined it, a dark red color, his nose was bleeding.

‘That’s not a big deal.’ Dipper thought.

He flinched once again as his right shoulder throbbed and grabbed the lower part of his arm with his left hand. Probably still sore from being dragged around…wait. A crucial detail came back to him, the last thing he felt before passing out…Mabel was the last thing _he saw_ but that wasn’t the important part about it; it was about what he _felt_.

His shoulder felt like it was on fire at that same moment he got his last glimpse of Mabel.

He slightly moved up his left hand and cupped around that shoulder lightly.

Moisture seemed to be completely covering it; he felt it run down his arm. He froze for a moment, he felt a sense of dread as his mind started racing towards a single conclusion.

“No it’s not…” he tried reassuring himself. “There’s no full moon just stay calm…”

His vest felt deeply torn, even his shirt sleeve…and then he writhed when he squeezed his shoulder just a tiny bit. That small touch sent a sharp pain throughout his arm, he squeezed his eyes shut and cried out in pain briefly. He yanked his hand off his shoulder in response, slamming it against the ground. Dipper buried his head next to his left arm as he clenched his teeth, groaning as he felt numb for that moment. Opening his eyes and raising his head slowly, he looked at his left hand; his palm and fingers covered with blood…a lot of blood.

His mouth opened slightly as his eyes grew big in horror, he rolled on his back as he stared at his trembling bloody hand.

His horror grew into panic; he sat up just a bit and turned his head to his right shoulder. The fabric was all torn and colored a deep red with his blood that traveled down his right arm. The wound looked awful…and he knew it was a bite wound from the looks of it.

His breathing quickened.

“It’s not…It’s not…!”

Something else then caught his eye on his right side; he tried to get a good look at it without rolling onto his right side.

It was paw prints, though that’s not what scared him.

There was also clawed hand prints grouped with them.

That sealed the deal for him; the dog hybrid he read about tonight did not have hands, it was all paws.

He did not want it to be the situation that he was dreading.

His body was shaking all over…

“There’s no full moon…there’s no…”

He tried to stay calm as he rather painfully dragged himself and made himself sit up against a tree.

What should he do?

Grunkle Ford was out of reach for a while since he was doing some research and investigating deep in the woods. Something about strange violent activity and some creatures asking for help, he didn’t really describe what exactly but he warned them to stay away from that part of the woods, too dangerous right now from what Ford seen.

Dipper could really use his insight of his own situation right now.

Desperate, he pulled out his packet, maybe there was an entry about werewolves that he missed when skimming through them?  It wouldn’t hurt to double check; but even then he felt that his chances of finding an entry were very slim.

He skimmed through them again and found some completely blank pages. Maybe…it was really written in invisible ink and not blank at all?

Curious, he took out his portable black light and tried black lighting it. To his luck, it had some info about werewolves surprisingly, maybe things would be ok. He managed to grab some new info…but it didn’t seem that very helpful…in fact it revealed some unfortunate news for his problem and only a little amount of good news.

“There’s different types of werewolves…Some might be werewolves, some might not be, some might not even spread the curse of becoming one…need to research more about this…cure still unknown…Ingredients might be…but very hard to find...there are multiple cures but each vary for each type of werewolf…given wrong one might cause death or illness or worsen ones condition…some can’t be cured…haven’t tested them all out…a few types don’t change during the full moon…change every night…rules keep changing…TOO MANY TYPES WILL ONLY DOCUMENT A FEW FOR NOW…”

And it just ended right there, unfinished. From what information that he did have wasn’t very helpful as it was vague. Those papers crushed any hope he had.

He didn’t know what type bit him and had no idea what cure he needed; and he didn’t even know if he even could be cured…and there was nothing he could do about it with the current information he had, he didn’t even know if this was older or current information. And Great Uncle Ford could not be contacted or reached right now; he didn’t have a phone or walkie talkie on him.

He did feel like one thing was certain.

He was going to suffer a very cruel fate.

He leaned against the tree and looked up at the night sky, his eyes full of despair and stress, closing his eyes slowly.

And then Dipper began to weep quietly as he drifted off.

 

                It didn’t take long for Mabel to locate him, she heard him cry out a few times in pain; it actually sounded sad and frightened to the point she could feel her own heart break. She hoped he was ok…he stopped responding a while ago.

“Dipper…Dipper…!”

Mabel gasped as she saw her brother from a few feet away, he was lying still against a tree and…and…he was bleeding…a lot. There was so much blood on his right arm; it was almost completely covered in it.

“D-Dipper!”

Mabel didn’t hesitate, she bolted towards him. Mabel almost slipped on the mud but quickly scrambled back up; her ankle started acting sore again from this but she tried to ignore it.

She started to falter as she got closer to him; she made a small skid when she reached him. Mabel took one more step as she held her arms out; she reached a shaky hand out to Dipper. He looked even worse up close; his vest sleeve on his right shoulder was torn open, his face had some small cuts and his nose bloody, his legs looked bruised and red.

Mabel fell to her knees, her eyes full of horror and sadness.

He was still breathing, but rather weakly; she held his right hand and placed her other hand on his back. His expression was pained and tired, checking him closer she could see tears. Her heart hurt so much to see him like this. She leaned on him a little to give him a light hug and then moved away.

“Dipper…? I’m sorry I took so long…please wake up.”  Her voice was sad and quiet.

Dipper weakly cracked his eyes open and looked to his right, Mabel was by his side with watery eyes.

“Ngh…Mabel?” his tired eyes had a hint of surprise. He struggled to move but Mabel restrained him.

“Dipper, you’re alive!” She snuggled up to him, giving him another hug, though it was a side hug actually. “I saw you breathing but I didn’t think you were going to wake up…”

“Mabel…you’re ok right? Did it bite you, and is the thing gone?” he coughed.

“I’m fine and yeah it’s gone…I kind of accidentally started a fire trying to save you.”

“What?”

“Well, the lantern broke then the next thing boom, but it’s not that bad.”

“Well…I’m glad you’re ok…”

Mabel nodded with a forced smile as tears ran down her cheeks; she hugged him again once more, she squeezed his hand even tighter.

Dipper hadn’t notice till now that she was even holding his hand due to his arm starting to go numb. He gave her a weak smile and squeezed her hand as well.

“I thought you were done for when that wolf ran off with you…”she closed her eyes as she snuggled closer.

He frowned in response; things weren’t exactly ok as Mabel thought they were. He sighed through his nose. The sight of seeing Mabel comforted him at first, but he knew she was possibly in danger by being with him.

He didn’t want to cut their moment of peace short, but he had to tell Mabel that he was bitten by a werewolf.

“Mabel, I’m sorry but you have to-” he groaned in agony as Mabel hugged him a bit too tight.

“Sorry…” her eyes widen as something caught her eye “Oh no, he bit your arm too…”

“What, no he got just my shoulder…”and then he noticed it too, the blood smear much lower down the right arm was actually a bite wound too. 

No denying it now again, he was definitely cursed. He had two bite wounds to prove it now.

He began to panic, not only that he had two bite wounds but his body was shivering uncontrollably and his legs were going numb. He felt like he was going to be sick, no wait, he probably _is_ sick.

That werewolf didn’t even need a full moon to appear, he could change at any moment, maybe even right now…he could actually be changing at this very moment!

“Oh…Oh man. M-Mabel please…just get-!” he winced as he felt pain go down his spine.

“Oh Dipper don’t move!” Mabel exclaimed. She moved him and made him lie on the ground.

“Just relax, I’ll get Grunkle Stan.”  She said, both hands now clasping his right.

He took a few quick deep breaths and looked at her with sad and frightened eyes.

“Mabel don’t…” he said weakly.

She was puzzled by his response.

“Don’t do what?”

“Do-don’t get help yet…”he coughed.

“What, but if I don’t you’ll probably die…”

“I know but I might change…”

“Wha…What do you mean by that?”

He just gave her a sorrowful look.

“You really do think a werewolf attacked us.”

“Mabel, I’m sorry, I’m not safe to be around anymore.”

“Dipper its ok, we can probably find a cure, we can look it up somewhere or wait till Ford comes back-”

“There might not be a cure, I looked it up, there’s a chance it will kill me or there might not be one at all! There’s more than one type of werewolf, some don’t even need a full moon to change, here look! Great uncle Ford wrote about them on these lost papers.” he snapped.

He gave her the papers and the portable black light, she skimmed through it, but she did not feel convinced. Maybe Dipper was jumping to conclusions again.

“Hey, it was never actually finished. It even says that some might not even be actual werewolves or even spread the curse. It might be out of date too; don’t give up!” She said in a cheery tone to lighten his mood.

“I don’t want to risk it, Mabel. I don’t want to change and eat people; I might even transform by then before Grunkle Ford comes back. Please if you’re going to help just lock me up, leave me or something, I don’t want to hurt you!” he screamed, he was in hysterics. He could not think coherently.

“Dipper, knock it off! It might be something else, maybe it’s another monster.” She was scared, scared for him, he looked so miserable.    

“Mabel, no one is safe, I’m becoming monster!”

“You’re no monster, even if you do turn into one. Come on Dipper, please let me help you; you don’t have to be alone because you’re turning into something.”

“I’d rather be alone if I’m becoming a monster! Mabel please, just leave me. I don’t want to kill anyone, and I’m not risking it!” He felt…exhausted.

“Dipper stop it! This isn’t like you! I can help you through this; I promise you won’t hurt anyone.”

“Just leave me Mabel...I might change at any moment.”

“I won’t let you die, come on Dipper you don’t really believe that this will help.” She started crying.

“Mabel don’t...I won’t die, I just want to be alone so I can change and not hurt anyone…I just need to be alone in the woods every night till Grunkle Ford comes back…it’s the safest thing to do…right now.”

“You won’t hurt anyone, come on just have faith.”

“Please…I’ll see you tomorrow…I won’t….die.” Dipper’s voice trailed off, his vision was fading. He was worn; exhausted…he realized what he was saying and how he was saying it was breaking Mabel’s heart. He honestly didn’t want to…

“Mabel I’m sorry about the things I said…I…I just want you safe.” He lied still, no longer moving but still breathing.

“Dipper…Dipper! Wake up, come on! Please don’t die!” She cradled him and tried shaking him, but there was no response.

“Dipper, I promise everything will be alright, just hang on…”

Mabel hugged him tightly, hoping he would wake up.

She raised her head when she heard familiar voices as tears ran down her face.

“Ack, Mr. Pines there’s a fire here!”

“Soos get a bucket or a hose, some idiot dropped a lantern! Hey kids, where are you?”

It was Soos and Grunkle Stan.

Mabel felt a moment of hope, she needed to save Dipper, and she would prove to him he would not change or become a monster.

“Dipper, I’m sorry, but I don’t think we were attacked by a werewolf, even though we did see the wolf. It-it might be something else, don’t worry. I’ll make sure you’ll be alright…trust me.” she pressed her forehead against his.

She lifted her head again and raising her voice, she yelled as loud as she could in a desperate and frightened voice.

“Help! Grunkle Stan, Soos! Help please, someone help! Please hurry! We need help, please!”


	2. Tending wounds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grunkle Stan finds his great nephew in poor shape while Dipper is uneasy after what's happened.
> 
> Mabel tries her best to comfort him but it's no easy task...not that it will stop her.

  

 

                Stan carried Dipper quickly inside as Soos carried Mabel. Stan cradled Dipper close to him as he was bleeding heavily; these kids went out for fireflies, what happened? It looked like an animal attacked the kids and Dipper got the worst of it from what Stan saw…he hoped it wasn’t what he thought it was… most likely wasn’t, he shouldn’t rely on a film he saw earlier today on TV, it’s giving him (Stan) ideas…and yet...he couldn’t shake the feeling…

If Ford were here, he would probably make sense of what attacked him…and punch Stan’s lights out for letting the kid get mauled. Honestly, he thought they would be ok in that part of the woods; it was nowhere near the part of the woods where Ford told them to stay away from. Stan felt like kicking himself for letting such a thing happen, should have given the kids pepper spray and air horns to scare big creatures off.

 

The boy was all messed up, covered in cuts, bruises and his right arm was chewed up; his wounds were nasty looking for a kid. He hasn’t woken up since he found him; Stan almost had a heart attack when he discovered the kid, he thought he was dead at first; he was still breathing but barely.

Mabel only suffered some small cuts and a sore ankle; she was pretty shaken though. She was by Dipper’s side when the two found the twins; Mabel tried telling them about what happened, but she spoke incoherently, mixing up the details of what happened and asking if Dipper will be alright and some other things. Stan had to tell her to calm down till they got to the shack where they could fix the twins up; he would ask her to talk about it later where they were safe and relaxed. She stayed quiet after Stan told her that, shivering in Soos’ arms and trying to get a look at Dipper in Stan’s arms. Soos’ tried asking Mabel what happened, but she only whimpered and muttered and looked sadly up at him with tearful eyes. She leaned on him and Soos’ held on to her tighter to comfort her.

 

Stan cleared the table by just shoving everything off it, regardless of the messy plates and food; this kid needed urgent help before it was too late. Dipper’s breathing was starting to slow down, this wasn’t a good sign.

“Soos, grab some towels for the kids…ugh, grab two or three for Dipper, I need to stop his bleeding, and get the medical stuff too.”

“What about Mabel Mr. Pines?”

“Keep her here for a while; I need to ask her some things about tonight. Then I want you to get Mabel to her room when you fix her up.”

“I want to help Dipper too, let me stay-”

“NO! Not when we fix him up…You can see him after.” Stan snapped; he seemed to recoil from how he raised his voice.

Mabel flinched; she just wanted to help her injured brother.

Soos set Mabel down gently on the floor, surprised by Stan’s reaction as well. Soos left with a silent nod.

Mabel scrunched up and hugged her knees, stressed from the events that unfolded tonight. Mabel looked at the limp Dipper, who was still in Grunkle Stan’s arms.

Stan eyed Mabel sadly and looked away for a second before looking back at her.

“Hey uh…Mabel look, I’m not mad at you two or anything, I just…” Stan sighed “I just don’t want you to feel like this is your fault or see him in this state; also we might have to stitch him up and clean his bites which is pretty disgusting. You look like you’ve been through a lot tonight and I think you need a break from…all this.”

Mabel looked away for a moment, she kind of understood but she still wanted to help him in any shape or form. Dipper just looked so helpless lying like that.

“Gr-Grunkle Stan, Dipper won’t die will he?”

“What? No, course he won’t, Dipper’s a tough kid! He’ll get through this, don’t worry pumpkin. We just need to fix him up first.” Stan reassured. He adjusted the wounded child in his arms, he didn’t want to tell Mabel that Dipper seemed to be getting worse, but Stan had hope that he could save the kid.

Stan caught a whiff of something nasty in the air and cringed.

“Ugh, you know what? We’re giving your brother a bath as well and get his clothes washed while we’re at it. Kid smells like trash, no wonder that animal could track him down. We’ll be able get the blood stains out his clothes and keep his wounds from getting infected that way as well…he won’t complain while he’s out…You know how to fix up holes like this right?”

“Yeah…”Mabel was out of it, she wasn’t as cheery as she usually was. Stan disliked seeing her feel this way; the poor girl was worried sick about her brother.

“Hey, cheer up; you’ll be able to be with him after we’re done with him…he’s going to need some spare clothes…”

“I’ll make him something…” Mabel said quietly, she chewed a strand of her hair out of stress.

“By the way, I know I should have asked this earlier; but what happened to get you two attacked by an animal?”

Mabel was quiet for a while before answering in a quiet voice.

“Well…we were on our way back when we heard something following us. It tried going after me but Dipper defended me and then it ran away…he saved me Grunkle Stan… It didn’t seem that scary after it left. He was helping me walk back to the shack when it came back…It grabbed him and ran off, it happened so fast. One minute he’s near me and then the next…he’s gone. I had to go after my bro; I thought it was going to snack on him. I fought the wolf with the lantern Dipper was using…and uh well…I dropped it and started a fire which scared it off…and then I found Dipper and talked to him for a while before he passed out, then you guys found me just a few minutes later.”

Stan looked regretfully in the other direction with a frown.

“I take back the idiot part…” Stan muttered under his breath.

“Huh?” Mabel’s head tilted.

“N-nothing…So your brother was awake when you found him, well that’s good news…we found him in time then…wait a minute…What did you say the animal was again?” Stan asked with concern.

Mabel hesitated.

 “A…a wolf…”

Stan’s eyes seemed to grow big; he leaned back a bit, shoulders sagging. He looked down at Dipper in a sad way and cradled him tighter. He noticed the dry tears on his great nephew’s face, probably from crying after the attack, Stan assumed. He gave Dipper a look of sympathy.

Mabel noticed this and felt uneasy.

“Grunkle Stan, you don’t think it was a werewolf too, do you?”

“What makes you think that?”

“Dipper thinks he was attacked by one…He kept telling me to leave him before he passed out.”

Stan looked away and stayed silent for a moment before putting on a stern expression and turned back to her.

“No, there isn’t a full moon tonight, he’s probably in shock or hysterical from being brutally attacked. He’s probably been getting ideas of what mauled him being so freaked out and all. He’s gonna be fine, he’s not going to turn into some monster; he’s just being his paranoid self. Just relax Mabel.”

Mabel felt a little more relieved but she still could not help but worry about Dipper.

Soos then bursted into the kitchen with the supplies “Sorry I took so long dudes; I had to find big enough towels and grab enough medical stuff.”

“That’s fine Soos, you got here in time. Here, place one on the table, wrap Mabel up with the other and put everything else on the side. Get Mabel to bed.”

Soos covered the table with the large towel and set everything else on the counter.

Soos then scooped up Mabel and wrapped her in a towel.

“It’s going to be ok hambone, Dipper will be better in no time!”

“Wait…” Stan said calmly.

“Mr. Pines?”

Stan removed Dipper’s hat.

“Mabel, hang on to this, I promise Dipper will make it through.”

Mabel nodded silently as Grunkle Stan handed her Dipper’s blue pine hat. She clutched onto it tightly and held it against her chest.

“Fix her up quick Soos, I’m gonna need help with patching Dipper up.”

“Yes sir!” Soos left quickly.

Mabel kept her eyes on Dipper as Soos’ exited the kitchen, he actually looked worse than earlier. Right now all she could do was keep her hopes up and wish that Dipper would make it through the night.

 

“Alright now, I know the next part might stink, no wait, it is gonna stink. I have to put that disinfecting stuff on your cuts. This is going to sting…”

Mabel winced as he put it on her cuts.

“Ow…why does this stuff have to hurt?”

“Something about killing the germs…”

“I know, but why does it have to hurt me too, just hurt the germs.”

“I don’t know; it feels like some things that help also hurt as well.” Soos started bandaging her injured ankle.

“Yeah…” She muttered, thinking of her brother.

“There you go Mabel!” Soos finished wrapping up Mabel’s ankle. Even though she only needed the bandage on for one day, Soos doodled on it a bit.

He wrote ‘Cheer up hambone’ and drew various images on it; Mabel eventually joined in and added her own designs, mostly adding cute animals.

“Thanks Soos.” She said, feeling a bit more hopeful about the situation

“No problem…You gonna be ok Mabel?”

“I think…hey Soos? I want to ask you something…something about what Dipper told me before he fell asleep.”

Soos expression was filled with concern.

“What is it hambone?”

“Well…Dipper told me something, like how I shouldn’t have saved him; he just wanted me to leave him there.”

“Wow, maybe he felt guilty or something…wait that doesn’t make sense. Why would he say that? Not unless he thought he would cause more trouble by being saved, which doesn’t make sense either.”

“No that’s right; he didn’t want to be saved because Dipper thought he would become a monster.”

Soos eyes grew big, he was catching on.

“You mean like a…”

“Werewolf…that’s what he told me…He thinks he’ll hurt people but I think he’s just being weird. He won’t turn into some monster right?”

Soos eyed the floor worriedly.

“Soos? You’re not scared of him are you? I mean even if he does change he won’t be scary or dangerous right?”

“Um, I’m not sure Mabel…I mean in the movies that curse has crazy ways of turning someone nasty.”

Mabel frowned.

“He’ll still be my brother; I won’t leave him because of some dumb curse. Dipper will be just some cute puppy.”

“Mabel…werewolves are pretty nasty guys, they maul anything in sight, Dipper might not even be Dipper after he changes.”

“Soos, you really think he’ll become a monster?”

“No...maybe…yes.” Soos answered nervously.

Mabel gave him sad eyes.

“I-I don’t know Mabel, just keep an eye on him in case he changes. Just remember, he might not recognize you and he might not even be Dipper anymore.”

She looked down.

“Hey hey I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I want Dipper to recover too, don’t cry!”

Soos hugged the heartbroken Mabel and patted her back.

“Soos is here for ya too, just hang in there…”

“Soos…” Mabel whispered. “No matter what I’ll stay with Dipper, he’ll never become a monster, even if he does turn into a werewolf. Trust me.” A tiny hopeful smile formed on her lips.

“I hope you’re right hambone…” Soos said nervously with a mix of sadness. He let go of her and kept his attention on Mabel as he left the room…and nearly fell down the stairs by keeping his eyes on her.

“Don’t worry I’m ok!” He reassuringly yelled. Stan could be heard calling Soos and asking him what the heck that crash was.

Mabel giggled to herself.

“Hey you can count on me Soos…Just believe in me!” She shouted cheerfully.

She frowned again as she thought to herself.

“Like I believe in Dipper…” she whispered to herself.

 

It didn’t take that long for Stan to fix Dipper up, he didn’t actually need stitches thankfully, but that’s what worried Stan. The bite lower on his right arm was bad looking and bleeding quite a lot, but thankfully there were no broken bones but the wound did have bruises around it. It could heal fine by itself without the stitches, though the kid’s arm will be very sore for a while, which was normal. All he and Soos had to do was to disinfect it, wipe the blood off and bandage it.

 His shoulder however, was the exact thing that worried him. While cleaning it, he discovered the wound healed quite a bit, it had already stopped bleeding and the open areas had already closed up. It still looked pretty bad though. It should have taken weeks for a wound to heal to that point. An hour had passed by now after finding him, it should not have healed that fast! This was a bad sign. He told Soos to start the bath immediately after discovering it like that, not wanting Soos getting any more ideas. Stan had made out a little of Mabel and Soos conversation from upstairs, and when he got down to help clean and disinfect the boy’s wounds, Soos was worrying the whole time and asking what if Dipper was right about being attacked by a werewolf. Stan ignored these and gave Soos no response.

Stan leaned against the table as soon as Soos left, feeling stressed. Maybe he should calm down; maybe Dipper was attacked by something else other than a werewolf, thankfully it wasn’t a vampire or zombie from the looks it. He just hoped it wasn’t a werewolf or…this kid is going to be miserable.

“Come on Stan.” He told himself “The kid is going to be fine…he’s not gonna turn into a mutt or anything else, he would have changed by now right? And besides, the kid wouldn’t even hurt or scare a fly as a wolf. He’ll just be a harmless pup, just like when he’s human…a harmless kid…” He looked at the sleeping Dipper, he sighed.

“Kid what am I gonna do with you?”

 

               

Dipper was already crawling out of bed, he didn’t understand why though. Actually he didn’t even know what was going on, everything felt hazy. He just suddenly woke up and took a few steps towards Mabel’s bed; Dipper didn’t even feel like he was in control of his own body. He just stood there at the side of Mabel’s bed, looking down at her as she slept, facing away from Dipper. All of this was creeping him out, why was he even doing this? Dipper wanted to go back to bed, but…he just wouldn’t move; he really wasn’t in control of his body! Fear began to set in, he tried to speak but only strange growling came out. Wait a minute…growling? Oh no, it can’t be…

He tried to scream for Mabel to wake up and tried to regain control of his body, but to no avail.

He continued to growl and he felt his now strangely shaped jaws, slowly open.

Mabel turned over and slowly opened her eyes.

She looked up at Dipper; her expression was confused at first, then it gradually changed into horror.

“Dipper?”

He did not respond; he just kept staring at her in a creepy manner.

“Mabel, run!” he screamed.

But a growl came out instead; his growl evolved into a roar.

He lunged at Mabel with his mouth wide open.

Mabel screamed.

 

                Dipper sprang up in bed, with a loud “No!”

He looked around the area, breathing quickly; it was still night out. It was mostly quiet and calm, undisturbed as if the previous events never happened, was he dreaming? Dipper stayed where he was as he tried catching his breath, he was still shaking all over from his nightmare...was it just a nightmare? He looked down and held his hands out in front of him. He was still human and there were no signs that he ever transformed yet, no dirt or blood under his nails, he sighed in relief. Dipper rubbed his hands around his face to double check, no fur or anything else, and no sign of him going out and eating an animal. He picked his teeth, digging his nail between them. He thankfully didn’t feel a trace of food or flesh stuck in his mouth.

He rubbed his right arm as he thought to himself…and felt a soft texture.

He freaked out for that moment believing he was starting to grow fur; he squeezed it and turned his attention quickly to his right arm.

Though instead of fur, Dipper saw…wool?

Actually, it was a dark blue sleeve of a sweater…that he was wearing; he looked at himself, pulling down on what appears to be his own sweater.

It had writing on it which said “Hang in there bro!” with stars around it. Mabel made this for him, there’s no mistaking it. Dipper was impressed on how fast she made it, must be a new record for her.

‘Mabel!’ He exclaimed in his head. How was she since he passed out? He hoped he didn’t maul her in his sleep.

He looked over at Mabel’s bed, but she wasn’t there. Her bed was neatly made and it didn’t look like anyone was using it recently.

He didn’t eat her, did he?

“Mabel?”

Something brushed against Dipper’s left hand; he jumped a little and withdrew his hand. But Dipper’s worries vanished when looked down beside him. Unaware Dipper had awakened; Mabel was sleeping next to him in his bed, as well as Waddles who was resting on the floor next to her. He was panicking so much about the dream he did not even notice that Mabel was visibly right next to him, he felt a bit stupid not noticing her instantly after waking up.

Mabel was lying awfully close to Dipper, almost cuddling up next to him while in a curled up like position. Mabel’s arms rested near her head; she was facing to the right, which was towards where Dipper was sleeping. She clung on to the blanket tightly in a stressed manner. Right next to Dipper’s bed was a small wooden crate with a bottle of water, the hat he received from Wendy and Mabel’s jar of fireflies on top of it, his blue cap resting on the side of the jar.

Mabel drew her limbs in closer to her body, scrunching up even tighter. Her expression was pained to the point Dipper thought she was going to start crying in her sleep; he felt guilty and heartbroken to see her like this. Mabel was really worried about him while he was out. She probably thought once again there was a chance he would never wake up. She was still by his side even after he warned Mabel the possibility of him turning into a monster; rather harshly in fact. Mabel’s reaction to him telling her to leave him out in woods still hurt Dipper emotionally. Telling someone that cares about you to just give up on you, all because you’re afraid you’ll hurt them if they try to help…how do you do that?

Mabel was putting herself in danger by sleeping next to him, but…he had not changed at all tonight. So maybe she was safe with him, just for tonight. Still, he had that nightmare…did it mean anything, was it a warning? Dipper knew he had to inform Mabel that there was still some chance he might change into a werewolf, but he also knew Mabel would not easily leave his side at this point, especially with his current condition.

He frowned a little and looked sadly at Mabel; he didn’t want to break her heart again but he had to keep her safe.

He sunk in his bed and inched a bit closer to Mabel; trying to enjoy the time he had now.

Even though she was in a deep sleep; unconsciously, Mabel’s hand found Dipper’s and she gripped onto it tightly. Dipper was taken aback by this but he did not dislike it. Dipper found reassurance from this, maybe things might turn out ok…though to him, it felt like a very slim chance of things being ok.

He nudged Mabel slightly in a playful way as he tried getting comfy, closing his eyes.

Mabel woke up from his nudge; she opened her eyes and blinked a few times. The first thing she saw was her brother half asleep.

“Dipper…?” she asked quietly.

Dipper opened his eyes slightly and formed a comforting smile.

“Hey Mabel…”

She responded instantly by hugging him. She cuddled against him and buried her head; both were still lying down during Mabel’s hug.

“You’re awake…again!”

“Y-Yep, ow Mabel, be careful my arm is still sore.”

She loosened her hug.

“Sorry bro bro, I’m just glad you’re gonna be ok.” She snuggled in her blankets giggling happily; the twins looked at each other with smiles.

Dipper wasn’t so sure yet, his smiled faded.

“Well kinda, sorta…I don’t think I’m going to be completely ok…”

Mabel frowned.

“You still think you’re gonna turn into something?”

“Um, uh…well yeah, I had…a bad dream.”

Mabel seemed puzzled.

“A bad dream, what does a bad dream have to do with you turning into anything?”

“Because…y-you know how in the movies when someone gets bitten or cursed by a werewolf, the victims start having nightmares before their first transformation?”

Mabel laughed nervously.

“You’re relying on movies too? Maybe you’re thinking too much about this Dipper.”

“No it’s not just that, the stray pages also mentioned something about the nightmares being related to the curse.”

Mabel squeezed his hand.

“I still don’t think you’ll become a monster when you change.”

“I know…h-hey, that reminds me, how bad was my arm?”

Mabel hesitated; she knew what answer he was looking for.

“What’s wrong?”

“Well, um, you didn’t need stitches, so you didn’t get any painful needles in you.”

“I’m healing too fast aren’t I?” Dipper looked troubled by this.

“…Well, your shoulder is, your other bite is still pretty bad.”

Letting go of Mabel’s hand, Dipper sat up slowly and rolled up his right sleeve and then pulled down on the right side of his sweaters’ collar. He had two bandages on his arm; the lower bite had a little smear of blood while his shoulder was white. He rubbed and slightly squeezed his shoulder, it wasn’t even sore. He sighed glumly as he fixed his sweater.

Dipper closed his eyes sadly and pulled the blanket over his head as lied back down on his side, he sunk deeper into his bed.

“Dipper?” she sat up.

No response.

She shook her blanket covered brother gently.

“Dipper, I know you’re really freaked out about this…but come on, you gotta be hopeful that everything will be ok.”

“I’m…”Dipper’s voice was slightly muffled under the sheets but not by much. “I told you earlier, I’m just scared I might-”

“Hurt someone?”

“Yeah…or worse...”

“Eat someone?”

“Yeah…or curse them.”

“Well, do you feel hungry?” Mabel asked, seeming livelier or at least attempting to be.

“No…not right now.”

“Not even for…human flesh?”

Dipper cringed and gave her a disgusted look as he poked his head out before covering himself again.

“Ew Mabel, come on this is serious!”

“I’m not kidding with you, do you honestly feel like eating anyone or meat?”

“…No, I’m not even hungry…”

“Then you’re gonna be ok! Werewolves like to eat meat all the time right? Then that might mean you won’t hurt people.” Mabel said cheerfully.

“Mabel, not all werewolves work like that according to the stray pages. And again, I still don’t know what type I was attacked by, and those pages don’t even give enough information…I might have to leave tomorrow and camp somewhere safe in the woods where I can’t hurt anyone.”

“Don’t…”Mabel’s tone was sad and quiet.

“Mabel it’s just for one night so I don’t attack anyone…don’t worry.”

“Why can’t you just stay at the shack?”

“I told you earlier I-”

“I know it’s to keep us safe, but you could just try…I’ll be there to help you out if things go wrong.”

“Mabel, I’m not really sure about this…wait, do they know; Grunkle Stan and Soos?”

Mabel adjusted herself in place before answering.

“Well Grunkle Stan says you won’t turn into anything…Soos is…kind of freaked out by you.”

“So he thinks I’ll become a monster…and Grunkle Stan might not even believe it was a werewolf…” Dipper curled up tighter.

“Hey, even if everyone is scared of you, I’ll be by your side…please trust me, I don’t want you all alone because of this dumb mess.”

“I…I don’t want to either, I’m just…really scared by all this, I won’t forgive myself if I attack someone.”

“Dipper you’re always too paranoid, I promise you I’ll help you through this.”

Dipper thought to himself under the darkness of his blanket. Should he give her suggestion a chance? He was deathly afraid of becoming a vicious monster and attacking his friends, but he also didn’t want to be completely alone…he felt torn by this decision.

“Dipper, I’ll keep watch on you, I’ll…I’ll lock you in the closet if you get out of control.”

“I’ll just break through the door…werewolves are strong you know.”

“Then I’ll block it with…something heavy? I’ll tie you up too. I’ll get Soos and Grunkle Stan to help if I can.”

“I’m kind of uncomfortable about that…what will they do with me? What if Stan makes an exhibit out of me? What if-”

“Dipper, stop worrying so much and being a dumb poop head!” Mabel snapped.

Dipper stayed silent in shock, she sounded hurt and desperate.

She crawled closer to him.

“Just stay here, no matter what happens, no matter how things get stupid or bad about this werewolf curse, just stay with us…Please, you can trust me, right?”

Dipper felt a strange chill as his heart sank…she was right, he could not reject her help, especially after hearing that from her.

Mabel adjusted herself in Dipper’s bed and lied on her stomach over Dipper’s blanket covered body.

“Please?” She asked in a sweet tone.

Dipper pulled the blanket down from his face; he had a tired smile mixed with a smirk.

“Ok…I’ll give it a try, I’m still really nervous about this…Just don’t tell anyone else about this, as in anyone outside the shack.”

Mabel wrapped her arms around her brother in relief and excitement.

“Yay, thank you thank you. I’ll promise to help and take care of you as much I can!”

Dipper felt himself choke a bit as Mabel hugged him tightly.

“Ok ok, I got it!” Dipper playfully tried pushing her away. “Haha…ow OW, Mabel, remember my arm!”

“Hehe…”Mabel let go of him with a big grin on her face. She lied back down and curled up, snuggling up against Dipper again.

He gave an awkward smile to Mabel, he didn’t mind her but this felt…sort of weird.

“So…um…why are you sleeping with me in my bed? Your bed is right next to mine…”

“Because I was worried about you silly, and you don’t smell bad for once.”

“Hey, that never bothered you those other times.”

“You smelled like trash earlier tonight.”

Dipper gave her a slight glare.

“Heh…and well…the other reason I was worried…” her tone changed to a calm and quiet one.

“What?”

“Well, when you were out, Grunkle Stan said you had a fever or something after he gave you a bath…I wanted to make sure you would be ok while you were sleeping. You looked like you were getting worse…There’s a bottle of water on the box next to me if you need it.”

 “Thanks Mabel, though I don’t feel like I’m sick now, I actually feel fine-wait a minute, Grunkle Stan gave me a bath?” Dipper sounded freaked.

“Yep! He said you were really stinky, so they cleaned you up good Dipper until you ‘smelled like roses’...or was it ‘lady perfume’?  Anyway, they also took your clothes and washed them too. They got your shorts done first, so I made you a comfort sweater so you can have something to wear for now.” Mabel giggled.

“I wouldn’t have mind if they just told me I smelled that bad or tell me to take one when I wake up.” Dipper grumbled. He scratched his head; they washed his hair too.

Mabel snickered at him.

“They gave me a bath while I was unconscious…ugh, gross!” Dipper cringed.

Mabel laughed at him; she stayed quiet for a few seconds before asking him another question.

 “So do you like it?”

“Like what?”

“Your sweater!”

“Oh…oh!” Dipper stuttered, he hoped he didn’t accidentally offend Mabel; he pulled down his blanket to look down at his sweater again. “Yeah I do…It’s cool I like the star designs…oh that’s the Big Dipper…”

Mabel laughed as Dipper covered himself with the blanket again.

“It’s pretty comfy…and itchy.” Dipper scratched his left arm.

“Hehe, you want some water? Grunkle Stan says you’re going to need a lot.”

“Yeah I am feeling thirsty, can you hand me that bottle?”

“Here you go!” she reached over to the wooden crate. “I have the fireflies here too so they can watch over us.”

Dipper chuckled as Mabel handed him the still cold water bottle, he rolled onto his back and sat up as he tried to open it. Though when opening it, he ended up spilling just a bit to Mabel’s annoyance, she inched away.

“Ugh Dipper be careful, don’t spill! You bed wetter!”

“Heh my bad…” he took a sip.

Mabel thought to herself for a moment as Dipper chugged down his water.

“Dipper?”

“Hm?”

“What was your bad dream about anyway?”

Dipper choked on his water and put the lid back on as he coughed. He was hoping she wouldn’t ask what it was exactly about and forget about it, he should have seen this coming though.

“You ok?” She sat up and patted his back.

Dipper allowed himself to catch his breath as he handed the water back to Mabel.

“It wasn’t that scary was it?”

“Ma-Mabel!”  He wiped his mouth. “I…” he cleared his throat. “I rather not describe what happened in it, just that I had a bad werewolf related dream, let’s just drop it.”

“Well you brought it up earlier, and why not, if you share it you won’t have the same nightmare again, at least that’s what I heard somewhere, I forgot where though.”

Dipper scratched his neck uneasily.

“I don’t think sharing it will help.”

“You’re not sure about a lot of things tonight. Come on, I’m helping you out here bro! You don’t have to be shy about sharing anything right now.”

“Mabel, it was pretty disturbing, I think it’s best if I don’t share.”

“I can handle it.”

“Well…the dream involved you.”

Mabel’s smile faded.

“What happened?”

Dipper had a look of regret and remorse before blurting it out.

“I transformed and attacked you.” He said bluntly. “I woke up before I did anything to you.”

Mabel stared silently at him with a blank expression.

Dipper sighed and looked away.

“Mabel I’m sorry…”

“It’s ok, it doesn’t bother me.”

“It doesn’t? But Mabel I attacked you!”

 “Dipper, it doesn’t actually mean you’re going to do something like that. It’s just a bad dream, don’t let it bother you. Just relax bro.” Mabel lied back down.

“Yeah, maybe…I’m sorry if I’m repeating things a lot tonight.”

“You’re not; you’re just freaking out because this of werewolf stuff. Now just go to sleep bro.”

Dipper agreed with her silently as lied back down as well, he was freaking out too much and needed some rest. Though one more question lingered in his head.

“…I wonder what type I’ll turn into tomorrow night.”

“Nothing dangerous maybe...” Mabel muttered.

“You seem really ok with me becoming a werewolf…”

“Because I know you will turn out to be some cute puppy…You can’t scare anyone with your looks. Not even in a Halloween costume.”

“Shut up Mabel…”He whispered playfully.

“You can’t even hurt anyone with those noodle arms of yours.”

“Better watch what you say or I might end up eating you as a wolf.”

She snickered.

“You’re way too nice to hurt anyone anyway. You’re the most harmless guy I know.” She sounded very sincere.

“Mabel you know that’s not completely true, you’ve seen some of the things I’ve done and they weren’t all harmless.” He still felt bad for some of the things he’s done in the past.

“I know…that's ok.” She giggled. “You’re still pretty nice to me.”

She smiled with sad eyes.

 “Dipper even if you turn into something, you’ll still be you. Besides, how scary and dangerous can you be?”

Dipper gave her no response but Mabel did not need one. She snuggled close to him as she got comfy in her spot.

“You’ll keep me safe and I’ll do the same, like we always do…we’ll find a cure…night.”

Dipper blinked as she fell asleep with a large smile on her face, believing now that everything will be alright; she was really confident that Dipper will not bring harm with his curse; she had so much faith in him. He admitted his talk with Mabel cheered him up and made him feel a bit more optimistic about his situation, but he still was afraid he might attack someone; and the transformation…that was something he was certainly not looking forward to. At least he had friends that can restrain him if things went wrong. Yet while unsure about all this, he found himself believing and finding comfort from Mabel’s words. Maybe, hopefully she was right.

He wanted her to be right…he just hope things would be alright tomorrow.

He heard a wolf howl outside and grimaced, that werewolf was still out there, Dipper hoped it would not curse someone else.

Dipper moved closer to Mabel, almost lying next to her in a protective manner, should that monster break into the shack.

He closed his eyes as he drifted off to sleep, and whispered

“I promise…I won’t hurt anyone…especially you.”


	3. The Longest Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twins make the most of their day as they await the upcoming night.

   The twins slept in that morning; considering how late they stayed up last night due to the events that unfolded, it was understandable. They were worn out; Dipper was exhausted from his injuries, and wanted to rest much longer while Mabel was getting sleep from the time she missed last night from being so stressed

Thankfully Dipper didn’t suffer from any more nightmares after last night’s talk with Mabel.

Mabel was the first to wake up at around nine-thirty. She found her brother at peace while he slept; Dipper had a relaxed smile on his face, having sweet dreams; this left a big smile on Mabel’s face and she giggled. She shook him gently to check to see if he would wake up but he let out a reluctant groan and turned the other way. She snickered in response.

Mabel fixed the blankets and tucked Dipper in; she surrounded him with a few of her stuffed toys to keep him company.

“Rest easy bro…”

 

    Mabel made pancakes with her Grunkle Stan that morning, or “Stan-cakes” as her Grunkle called them whenever he made them. She wanted to help him out as she wanted to make Dipper’s pancakes special; he needed some cheering up and some “tender loving care” to lift his spirits about his curse. Though Grunkle Stan kept making and giving her sausages and bacon, saying that “He’s going to need a lot of meat in his diet if he’s ever going be a tough man” or something like that. During cooking, Stan brought up that he did not sleep well last night due to Dipper’s weak condition, even though he had faith that the kid was tough enough to fight through it.

Dipper ate his breakfast in bed, thanking Mabel for making it for him, he however felt suspicious of the quantities of meat that Grunkle Stan gave him. Maybe Grunkle Stan did think he was turning into a werewolf, but Mabel told him differently last night. Maybe he knew something about this monster that Dipper himself didn’t know. He wanted to confront his Grunkle about this, but Mabel protested that she wanted him to enjoy his breakfast first. He couldn’t say no to her pleas.

He actually enjoyed Mabel’s pancakes, complimenting them.

“They’re actually pretty good!”

“Aww, you’re just saying that.” She threw a playful punch; Dipper flinched in surprise.

He managed to clean up the pancakes and bacon on his plate but left two small sausages as he was getting pretty full. Mabel told Dipper not to worry as she will give them to Soos, who would really enjoy these “Stan cooked” left overs.

Soos was grateful for the offer but gave Mabel a warning in return, saying to be careful around Dipper near sunset, Mabel responded by saying she had the mess under control, at least she hopefully thought she did. Soos noticed the uncertainty in her tone and told her he just hoped she knew what she was doing. Timidly, Soos informed her he saw Dipper chewing on a pen, believing it to be a sign of him becoming a werewolf but Mabel brushed it off saying it was something Dipper normally did when paranoid.

 

    Dipper came down stairs later, dressed in his now clean, every day clothes, he asked Grunkle Stan if he actually believed he was attacked by a werewolf; Stan gave a nervous laugh (at least that’s what it sounded like to Dipper) and told him that he was worrying too much about this.

“Kid relax, you’re alive and moving, you’re not gonna turn into some mutt. There wasn’t a full a moon last night…You’re gonna be fine!”

“But those pages I found…”

“What did they say?”

“Well, it said that there are different types of werewolves, not all of them change during the full moon, and some of them change every night! Grunkle Stan, what if I transform tonight?”

Stan stared silently at Dipper before answering.

“Kid, I’m going to be blunt, I don’t want to believe that thing was a werewolf. I know how things look bad right now, but maybe it wasn’t a werewolf, maybe it was some else...weird thing.”

“Mabel said that you noticed my shoulder was healing fast…come on you can’t deny that!”

Stan raised an eyebrow.

“…Are your bites still sore?”

“…Kind of...only the one on my arm still hurts…”Dipper rubbed his shoulder.

“My shoulder doesn’t feel sore at all…”

“That’s great! Then you’re not turning into a werewolf.” Stan said in a delighted tone.

“What? No, healing fast means I am turning into one!” Dipper stammered.

“But only your shoulder is healing that fast kid! Werewolves heal fast right? If you were really becoming a werewolf, then all your wounds would be healing that fast. See, you’re gonna be fine.”

“But Great Uncle Ford’s papers…”

“Kid, my brother can’t be right about everything, maybe he got some things wrong and besides he wrote those years ago. Take it with grain of salt and stop freaking out all the time. I promise ya won’t turn dangerous. Just relax until then.”

“Until then?”

“Until Ford gets back, whenever that is, probably got side tracked.”

“But what if I do transform or do something awful or…or-”Dipper’s mind raced for any possible bad outcomes.

Dipper continued to protest but Stan told him once again to stop freaking out about the thing and help out by putting up flyers of the Mystery Shack with Soos. Dipper gave up trying to convince his stubborn Grunkle and muttered to himself in frustration, though oddly enough before leaving, Stan told Dipper not to eat any squirrels while he was out; it sounded like a joke, but to Dipper, Stan was probably giving him an actual warning. Maybe Grunkle Stan was right, maybe he was overthinking this; but even then Dipper continued to believe it was a werewolf and rely on the packet for now; better safe than sorry right?

 

    Putting up the flyers was easy; seeing Soos act all scared and nervous around him wasn’t.

“Come on Soos, you don’t think I’ll be some kind of killer do you? Look I’m really scared too but you can still trust me when I’m human right?”

“Is that you saying that or the werewolf?” he responded skittishly.

“Soos…” Dipper felt hurt.

“I’m sorry dude; I just don’t know what to think about all this stuff happenin.”

“I understand…I really don’t know either. I don’t want to hurt anyone, and I want to believe I’ll turn out harmless like Mabel does…but that werewolf was vicious and…I just don’t anymore, I don’t know what’s really going to happen to me…I want to believe things will be ok…but I just don’t know anymore.” Dipper looked at the ground away from Soos.

Soos eyed Dipper sadly. He still was Dipper’s friend even if he was becoming something from a horror film, he just didn’t know what would become of Dipper after the transformation; werewolves weren’t known for being…friendly.

“Hey…so, Mr. Pines said he is gonna be out tonight so I get to watch you two dudes.”

“Why would he need to be out tonight, what is he even doing?”

“I dunno; he was kinda vague about it; something about going out to get some things and something else…”

“Like what?”

“I don’t remember, but he can’t have you dudes alone after what happened last night.”

Dipper thought to himself about this.

“Mabel told me what you guys are doing.”                                            

Dipper was slightly caught off guard by this.

“Huh, wh-what do you mean?”

“That you dudes are gonna stay in your rooms till you change or something and then figure something out.”

“Ye-yeah…”

“Hey don’t worry Dipper; I’ll be helping you guys out if you go nuts or something. And if you guys need anything, just ask your buddy Soos.”

Dipper gave a small smile.

“Thanks Soos…I thought you were giving up on me when Mabel told me how you freaked out about my bite.”

“I wouldn’t give up on you dude…It’s just…”

“You’re scared of what I’m gonna turn into?”

“NO...Yes.”

Dipper sighed.

“Look Dipper, werewolf movies always have different rules unlike zombies or vampires. But they always end up bloodthirsty and have that human vs monster thing going on inside them…I-I’m not saying you will turn blood thirsty…it’s just most of them are bloodthirsty in movies, comics…everything…uh wait no I mean…I don’t know how you’re gonna turn out either.”

“I know…its ok Soos.” He said quietly with a smile.

“I mean even the ways you can get turned into one can be different, like sometimes a scratch can turn you into one as well as a bite. Even weaknesses are different; sometimes silver doesn’t do anything to them. And animals can sense if you’re cursed.”

“A scratch too…Mabel got some scratches from last night from the attack…” Dipper looked down at his feet with worry as he put up a flyer.

“I’m sure hambone is fine, she wasn’t acting different last night.”

“I better check Ford’s packet when I get back to make sure.” Dipper mumbled to himself, though she was most likely OK by what he’s seen so far.

Dipper thought to himself before speaking again.

“So, was Waddles acting weird around me last night? He didn’t seem bothered by me today.”

“Nah, he acted pretty normal, he was in your dudes room when we got you in bed. Maybe the pig was worried about ya.”

“Maybe…”

“Hey, so does silver hurt ya now?”

“No, I haven’t even touched anything silver.”

“I got something silver back at home, you wanna check to see if it burns ya or something?”

“Yeah…bring it over; I just hope it doesn’t kill me.” Dipper shuddered. He had to at least check to see if silver does hurt him or not.

“I hope hambone is right about you turning out harmless.”

“Yeah…me too.” Dipper replied sadly.

“I hope you turn out to be some puppy like Mabel said; you’d be all cute and cuddly.”

“Soos, werewolves are not cute, not even puppies.” Dipper responded in an annoyed tone.

“But puppies are always cute.”

“Soos have you ever seen a werewolf puppy?”

“No, have you?”

“…No, but I doubt they’re cute.”

“But I bet your wolf form will be cuddly, and we’ll get to love ya, hug ya and snuggle ya.”

“Soos stop, your creeping me out man.”

“And you’ll get belly rubs; heh hey, I’m feeling way better about this you becoming a werewolf thing.”

“Soos!”

“Everyone would love to pet ya, you’ll have it easy as at puppy, and-”

“Soos, wait, that’s not how it’s going to work…never mind.” Dipper gave up correcting him as Soos went on how great it will be to become a puppy. Dipper could only give him a tired smile.

 

     Things were pretty normal for the rest of the day, well, mostly normal. Dipper touched Soos silverware that afternoon, only to thankfully find out that it did not harm him. Also as an added relief, scratches according to the packet rarely turned someone into a werewolf and most types do not have this effect and would show symptoms of the curse; at least Mabel was safe as she showed none of the symptoms.

 

    Mabel spent most of her day around the shack, mostly drawing and scrap booking, and worrying about her brother. He better not had been thinking of something crazy or ran away, she thought. Waddles stayed by her side most of the time; she noticed he spent a lot of time sniffing and lying on Dipper’s bed. When she began to remove her ankle wrap, the pig hopped down and sniffed it and he let out a frightened squeal and hid behind Mabel.

“Hey its ok Waddles…the beastie isn’t around anymore.” She said sweetly as she patted her pig, he was shivering.

Mabel sighed and added her bandage wrap to her scrap book, spreading it out cleanly as she flattened and tried fitting it in her book. Her weak smile faded as she knew the day was half over, and Dipper would be freaking out badly again. She set it aside, noting that she had to go out and buy more art supplies at some point; she need a few more cents to go out and besides, she had her mind on other things at the moment. She stared at Dipper’s sadly before going downstairs.

 

    Wendy noticed that Mabel seemed…out of it, and she knew why.

Mabel was leaning against the ice box looking unsure and deep in thought.

“Hey, you feeling ok?” Wendy kneeled down next to Mabel.

“Not really…”

“I heard what happened to you guys last night, that’s real nasty what happened to Dipper…I’m really sorry.”

“Yeah…”

“He looks like he’s ok now from what I’ve seen, though he seems really out of it.”

“He’s been like that since last night…”

“Yeah a dog attack will make ya feel like that…”

“But it wasn’t a dog-”

“I know, but dogs and wolves are similar right? Hey, I’m gonna come over later tonight, Stan said he needs some faces around to keep an eye on you guys, since he doesn’t that wolf coming back and I wanna help you guys get through this.” She laughed to herself “And I don’t have anything to do tonight and he bribed me as well.”

Mabel looked away and moaned sadly, Wendy patted Mabel’s back in encouragement.

“Hey, don’t worry about him, he’s gonna be ok, if you need anything just ask me ok?”

Mabel nodded.

“Kay…”

“It’s lame he has to stay in bed for tonight but it will help.”

“Thanks Wendy…”

“See ya later.”

Mabel was high fived before Wendy left, she felt a bit better but knowing what might happen tonight, things might turn for the worse. No wait, what was she thinking? She has to stay hopeful, for Dipper, for her brother, he would never turn on anyone. Why would such a thing now pop in her head? Was she growing doubtful? She can’t, not right now, not ever about this.

               

    When Dipper returned to the shack, he caught a glimpse of a movie on his Grunkle’s TV; it was some old (probably 80’s from the looks of it) badly acted, cheesy, horror flick about a guy telling his family to shoot him as he transformed into a werewolf. The special effects were…actually pretty good to the point of disturbing Dipper; how bad would his own transformation be like? He recoiled as they fired at the monster. He shook his head, no no no; he didn’t want the same to happen to himself, he can’t hurt anyone!

“No…No I’m not…!” Dipper stammered to himself.

He felt a hand gently placed on his left shoulder.

“Dipper?”

He turned to his left to see Mabel standing beside him; her expression full of sadness.

“Do you think what happened in the movie is going to happen to you?” she asked with concern.

Dipper stuttered but could find nothing to say and looked down sadly.

Mabel patted his shoulder.

“It’s ok; it’s just a dumb movie.”

“Yeah, you’re right…I’m going to be upstairs for the rest of the day.”

Dipper slowly walked towards the stairs as Mabel followed him.

“…Maybe you should take a nap while you wait.”

Dipper nodded tiredly.

“If I do fall asleep, please wake me up before I change, I don’t want to wake up to the feeling of my bones cracking.”

Mabel cringed at this.

“Uh…Don’t worry; I’ll force you to get up before then…” Mabel said, disturbed by her brother’s statement. “Just don’t say anything gross like that again…” she muttered.

Dipper did not respond as he went to lie down, however she thought she heard a quiet laugh from him.


	4. Night Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Night has arrived.

               Something soft fell on his head as he slept; it felt like a light tap. It isn’t enough to wake someone up, but since Dipper wasn’t in a deep sleep he sure did notice it. Dipper opened his eyes slowly as he awakened; his vision fuzzy as he did so. He blinked a few times before feeling another tap on his skull. He shook his head and looked around himself; there were two stuffed toys on his left, a rhino and a unicorn. He guessed Mabel was trying to make him feel more comfortable in her own way; he picks up the unicorn, looks at and fiddles with it before placing it back down.

Once again, he felt another tap on his head; he sees (and felt) a soft object run down his face; it’s a plush of a dog. Dipper picked it up in confusion and looked in Mabel’s direction; she had a big grin on her face and had a red plastic tub next to her...why was she throwing things at him?

 “…Mabel?”

He heard Mabel giggle as she got up and held the tub over her head, taking a few steps towards him.

Dipper felt uneasy about this, she had something planned.

“…WH-what are you doing? Don’t…!

Dipper tried to back away from her quickly but was met with a down pour of stuffed animals raining on top of him.

“H-Hey!

He instinctively shielded his head, laughing as he was covered with stuffed animals.

“Plushie shower plushie shower!” Mabel cried.

“Mabel, knock it off! I’m awake I’m awake!” he chuckled.

Mabel snickered at him as she placed the tub down and jumped onto his bed.

Dipper smirked and playfully threw a small stuffed rabbit at Mabel, she blocked while still giggling.

“Ok, what are you doing dummy?” Dipper asked as he teasingly shoved her.

“Waking you up in the cutest and comfiest way I can think of. Did you find it comfy enough?”

“Yeah, didn’t realize you could fit so many of them in that tub…” he said in an amused tone.

“I tried putting every plush I had in there, I couldn’t put the real big ones in there…so here’s Mr. Rhino too!” She excitedly whacked him with the stuffed rhino as Dipper raised his arms up in defense.

“Hey watch it; or I’ll make your rhino my chew toy tonight.” He snickered as he shoved the stuffed rhino away.

“I’ll dump cold water on you next time if you do!”

“Then you’ll get stuck with me smelling like wet dog.”

“Ew, gross Dipper!” she whacked him again as they both had a giggling fit.

Though after a few more hits, Dipper’s shoving of her toy away became less forceful, till his strong shoves were small pushes to gentle taps.

Mabel noticed this, not only was he faltering in playing, his smile was beginning to fade as Dipper looked to his right, away from Mabel. His eyelids slightly lowered as he went deeper in thought, he eyed his wrist watch with a solemn expression and removed it from his right arm. He tossed it over to the table between the twin’s beds in a frustrated manner and sighed.

Mabel’s energy was quickly dying down as she understood her brother was now thinking about his curse again. She frowned at this; seeing him act like this broke her heart.

“What’s wrong?”

Dipper took a moment to respond.

“…It’s eight PM…”

“So…you didn’t change yet, so that’s a good thing right?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to change so don’t get your hopes up.”

She lowered her head slightly.

“Doesn’t your paper scraps say anything about when you change?”

“Not specifically, it either says when the moon is full or when night falls…” he skimmed through paper clipped stray pages quietly for a while as Mabel looked away.

“Did Grunkle Stan leave yet?”

“Yeah he left like a while ago, he didn’t say much why though other than he was going to grab some things. But he said I should keep an eye on my new dog.”

Dipper groaned in annoyance as Mabel laughed at him.

“How did you know he left?”

“Soos told me when we were putting up flyers earlier today. Apparently he didn’t tell Soos much either about what he was going out for. ” Dipper grumbled.

“I wouldn’t worry about it; Grunkle Stan does weird stuff sometimes, it’s nothing to worry about.” She replied smoothly, not caring about the fact she repeated herself.

“Yeah, maybe…So, what is Soos doing?”

“Ah he just pops in and asks if we’re ok and if you’re a wolf yet…he’s got us covered.” She was quite confident in her words.

Soos could be heard calling out from downstairs.

“Hey Hambone, is he a pup yet?”

“Not yet!” Mabel cried back.

“Ok, I got a cage if you need it!”

Dipper turned to her with a bewildered expression.

“Where did he get a cage?” he asked quietly.

“He made it himself, he put spikes on it so you break out of it so easily.”

Dipper mouthed the word “really?” as Mabel went over to her bed, nodding.

Mabel plopped on her back, with her legs in the air.

“Soos told me he’s feeling better about your curse and thinks you’ll be a puppy, he just built the cage just in case you get out of control; I don’t think you will to me.”

Dipper said nothing.

“And if you’re wondering, Waddles is with Soos so you don’t eat him. He’s been acting weird since it started getting dark.”

Dipper adjusted himself and huddled up, looking down at his feet all melancholy like.

“He still likes you, I mean he was getting on your bed and rubbing his pig nose against your face and squealing a lot.”

“He probably knows what’s going to happen to me…”

“He’s just worried about you, that’s better than being scared of you right?”

He looked away from Mabel sadly.

Mabel gave him an annoyed glanced and huffed.

“You need to stop being such a downer. Are you even gonna do anything to kill the time?”

“Didn’t really plan on that…”      

Mabel sat right up.

“How could you not? You can’t just do nothing till then, that’s boring; how about a board game or something?”

Dipper eyed her and looked away despondently, the thoughts of the upcoming transformation was stuck in his mind.

“I’m not really interested…I’m sorry, I’m just tense. I know I’ve been saying that a lot lately.”

Mabel silently stared at him.

“Come on chillax, maybe you’ll be a puppy after all, or maybe you’ll be gross and hairy as a human; with pointy ears, yellow eyes and sharp teeth.”

“Ew no!”

“Hey you’ll get that chest hair you wanted.”

“That’s not the type I wanted…”He grumbled.

“Or maybe you’ll be like the werewolves in the romance novels, like Wolfman bare chest. I bet the ladies will love you, you’ll be like a big strong guy and a handsome creature of the night and-”

“Mabel, it doesn’t work that way! Werewolves run around and hurt and eat people! Werewolves are not romantic creatures, stop it!” He snapped angrily, he flinched from his own angry words.

Mabel was shocked from his outburst and her expression showed she was hurt; she was only trying to help.

Dipper’s eyes widen, feeling remorseful.

“Mabel I…I’m sor-”

And at that moment he felt a sharp pain in his right hand.

Dipper let out a small startled cry and squeezed it; Mabel’s heart skipped a beat and she froze in place.

“Dipper?”

He groaned in response, his hand felt like it was burning and soon his other hand followed.

Mabel left her spot and rushed over to Dipper.

“Dipper, is it starting?”

“I…I…”he stuttered to say something. 

Then something strange caught their eyes, Dipper’s nails…they were turning black.

He didn’t understand what was supposed to be happening at first.

“What?”

Mabel inched closer to Dipper in concern.

“Dipper, are you-”

Then a loud crack came from his hands, he cried out in alarm and lurched forward as it felt like someone crushed them.  He squeezed his eyes shut as the bones in his hands continued to crack, his nails felt as if someone was piercing through them; strangely he felt his nails, both on his fingers and toes, moving.

“Dipper your nails!” Mabel cried in a panicked tone, he felt her grip on to his left shoulder.

 He opened his eyes…and was met with the frightening sight of his nails changing shape. They cracked as they slowly grew longer and rather pointed, becoming sharper.  They were becoming round in a way he couldn’t figure out to describe, they sort of…’puffed up’, at least that’s how it looked when they changed that way.

His jaw dropped and his lower lip trembled, he raised his shaky hand out in front of him, watching his nails becoming long black razor sharp claws.

Dipper shook his head in a panicky manner as he slightly moved his fingers, his claws still lengthening; he let out frightened heaving as his body shivered.

Mabel’s eyes grew wide as she watched what was unfolding before her, finding herself leaning away from him as her grip tightened.

Mabel wished that this was a bad dream; she wished the signs were just coincidences and Dipper was being paranoid again. But those wishes would never come true, Dipper’s fears were real.

He _was_ cursed; he _was_ bitten by a werewolf.

And he was beginning to change.

“N-No…No!” He turned to Mabel with frightened eyes, Mabel couldn’t find the words to respond to him, he really was becoming a werewolf, and she was afraid of what was happening.

“Dipper its ok, j-just don’t freak out…”Mabel said nervously; honestly she didn’t know what to tell him and thought what she said was rather stupid to say at a time like this.

Dipper stared at her questionably.

“How can I not freak out? I’m turning into a werewolf!” he got off the bed in a panic and wandered aimlessly and clumsily around the room. He couldn’t think straight, all he had going through his head was the fear about what was happening to him.

“Oh man oh man oh man…” he repeated in dismay as he focused on his hands, paying no attention to his surroundings as he bumped into things.

He was breathing pretty fast as his fear grew.

Mabel approached him cautiously from the side with a frown.

“Dipper maybe you should lie down…?” she reassured him nervously as she placed a hand on his right shoulder.

He felt Mabel touch him rather gently; he flinched away in surprise when she did, though it was a pretty reassuring gesture.

Dipper whipped his head around to her, giving Mabel an agonized and frustrated look, gritting his teeth. But that’s not what freaked Mabel out, what did was that his brown eyes were glowing. Mabel was taken aback by this.

Dipper noticed Mabel was backing away, she was afraid of him…his own sister was afraid of him.

His eyes widen before squeezing them shut and relaxing his expression, slowly opening his eyes as he gave her a calm look to tell her he didn’t want to harm her.

However Mabel was still rather frightened.

“Mabel I’m still in control d-don’t worry.” He stuttered as he tried fighting off the small pain.

Mabel shook her head.

“No it’s not that, your eyes are getting glowy!”

“What?! My eyes are glowing?”

“Yes!”

He looked around and spotted his reflection in the window, sure enough his eyes were glowing; they were still their brown color but he knew they wouldn’t stay that color for long.

He shuddered as he turned back to Mabel in horror. Dipper fell backwards onto his bottom in despair; Mabel kneeled beside him to his left.

“I…I really am turning into a monster…”

“Don’t call yourself that, just think about happy things!” Mabel was running out of ideas on how to keep him calm.

Dipper could tell Mabel was losing faith in her words.

“I can’t think about anything else but the fact I’m changing, how can I think about anything else?!” his tone was becoming increasingly angry and pained sounding.

“Dipper, stop being a rude jerk, I’m just trying to help in any way I can think of!” Mabel cried with a mix of sadness and frustration.

Dipper winced and gave her a hurt expression.

“I’m losing control of my emotions am I?” his voice was cracking, ashamed of his actions as he huddled against the wall shaking.

Mabel gave him a sorrowful expression, he didn’t mean to be a jerk; it was this entire dumb curse’s fault. She wished she could somehow ease his suffering.

“Dipper, its ok…” she tried approaching him closer almost trying to side hug him.

Mabel was startled as Dipper let out a pained groan; he felt the claws on his toes pushing against his sneakers uncomfortably as it ran out of room. Dipper yanked his shoes and socks off quickly, not wanting to feel anymore discomfort or have his claws tear through his shoes.

“It’s pretty slow for a scary werewolf transformation.” Mabel muttered.

“Maybe…m-maybe you’re right; maybe this won’t be so bad…”he laughed nervously, all that hurt were his hands and nails so far, maybe the transformation wouldn’t hurt that bad as the movies or papers made some of the transformations out to be. Turning to Mabel, he noticed she seemed to be frozen in place as she stared with rather big eyes at him.

“Mabel?”

“Y-you’re hands…! You don’t feel that all?”

“Wh-what?” Dipper looked at his hands and saw that brown hair, no wait…actually, brown fur was sprouting on the back of his hands, spreading to the fingers. He really didn’t feel anything other than a slight ticklish and itchy sensation; it traveled across his fingers rather rapidly. He winced as he felt his…palms and fingers pushing out? Bewildered, he checked the palms of his hands; his skin was darkening and hardening as black lumps formed while fur grew around it, rubbing his finger against it, it felt pretty rough, he could still feel other things with his black lumps but everything felt more ‘cushioned’. The twins had seen these lumps before on the paws of cats and dogs…his hands had transformed into a combination of human hands and paws.  He could still move them like human hands but it felt strangely awkward to do so, they were much larger than his human hands.

Mabel reached out slowly to feel his transformed hands, they didn't look that scary.

Then everything went south from there.

 

          Dipper let out another cry and squeezed his left arm, flinching away from Mabel; she drew her hand back in surprise.

"Dipper what's happening now?"

Dipper struggled to answer.

"I think my arms are swell-"

But he could not finish, at that moment; his entire being was overtaken by excruciating, agonizing and unbearable pain. He screamed and hugged his stomach as he curled up and fell to his side in a fetal like position. His body was shaking, but it wasn’t from fear this time. Everything hurt; he was completely paralyzed from the awful pain, even the slightest movement caused him discomfort. His skin felt as if he was on fire, he felt like his insides were being rearranged and changing shape, his bones felt like glass and his muscles felt like chewing gum(he couldn’t think of any other way to describe it right now). Something was tearing him apart from the inside out.

Dipper drew his arms in closer as he once again squeezed his eyes shut.

He let out another, much louder, ear piercing scream.

 

            Mabel crawled backwards away from Dipper, she was terrified of what was happening to him, but she was actually more scared _for_ him. She had never seen Dipper in so much agony like this before, Mabel could feel her heart breaking into small pieces; she couldn’t bear to see him on the floor withering in pain, he looked so helpless and frightened. He rolled to his other side as he hugged himself, Dipper sounded like he was on the verge of crying; actually he was crying, just a little but it appeared he was trying his hardest not to. However it seemed impossible not to cry from such a scary and painful transformation.

Mabel swore she heard him quietly whimper the word in a soft tone…“Help…”

Dipper rolled on to his stomach and tried to lift himself off the floor but his sore body made it difficult to do so and collapsed to his hands and knees.

“Guys what’s going on up there?” Soos cried from downstairs.

Mabel heart breakingly shook her head; she couldn’t watch her younger brother suffer like this any longer. She wanted to throw a large cushy blanket over him to soothe him; she had to do something to help Dipper. Maybe…Maybe she could help him over to his bed? She did suggest earlier that maybe lying down might help, maybe he just needed something comfortable to lie on, she wasn’t sure if it would actually work but it wouldn’t hurt to try.

Mabel stood back up and approached Dipper cautiously as he scrunched up tighter, his back arching as she heard several cracks from his bones. She flinched away at this but gathered up her courage again and continued to walk around him, now standing in front of him.

“Dipper, I think I can help you through this…” Mabel kneeled down and reached for his hand, his claws were sinking into the wooden floor. “Here, I’ll carry you to your bed; I can try and find a snuggly blanket to help…”

Dipper felt his sister clutch his furry hand, but he did not feel relief, instead, he panicked. He could hurt Mabel by accident in his current state!

Mabel was met by a rather frightening looking Dipper, seemingly looking right through her in an angry fashion.

“Don’t, I’m not safe right now!”

“I’m just helping you up, chillax…”she remarked.

Mabel tugged on his hand to help him up.

“NO, Mabel, don’t! Get away!”

He flipped out; he had to keep her unharmed.

Dipper forcibly yanked his hand away from her…and heard a loud tear.

Mabel cried out in surprise while Dipper fell forward, he managed to barely sit up as his insides twisted, supporting himself with his hands. Mabel stumbled back away from Dipper, grasping her hand tightly. She whimpered as she squeezed her eyes shut briefly; her hand hurt really bad, she didn’t want to let go of it.

“Mabel? What’s wrong? Are you ok?” Dipper sensed something was awry.

She carefully removed her grip, her hand trembling. Her hand was covered in deep nasty looking cuts, blood flowed from it, and the air caused the cuts to sting even worse. Mabel tried wiping the blood off with her left arm’s sleeve and looked back at Dipper; her sorrowful expression mixed with surprise; as if she wanted to say

‘Why?’

Dipper shook his head in dismay and he held his clawed hand in front of him, staring at it with his mouth agape. A small amount of blood trickles down his claws, Mabel’s blood. His lower lip trembled as he knew he was becoming a killing machine.

"Oh my gosh Mabel you're bleeding! I-I..." he pushed himself tightly against the wall, his eyes full of guilt. He looked around in distress, shaking.

“I-I…Oh no…no…” Dipper let out a quiet sob as he hugged himself.

Mabel looked at him sympathetically; she knew he had no intention of hurting her.

“Dipper…I-it’s ok, it’s just a scratch…” she told him softly.

“No… it’s not just a scratch Mabel, you’re really bleeding…I…I’m not safe to be around…” he was hyperventilating, letting out distressed sobs every few seconds.

“Dipper it was an accident, you were just scared…” Mabel took a step towards him.

“No…Mabel…”he scooted to the left against the wall, away from her as he stared at the floor.

“Dipper, knock it off, you just freaked-”

Dipper’s brows furrowed and his glowing brown eyes glared straight into Mabel’s, he shoved her away roughly with his right foot. Mabel nearly tripped as she stumbled backwards, shocked by his action.

“Mabel, stay away!”

She froze in place, scared. She swore she heard him growl lowly in a menacing manner.

“But…” Dipper cut her off.

“Get out of here, run!” he begged somberly.

“Dipper stop it, we promised we would stick together!”

“You’re hurt because of me! I’m sorry Mabel but…you can’t be with me right now, I’m becoming dangerous.” He hugged himself even tighter, almost curling up into a ball.

“No you’re not!”

“You’re…you’re crazy…Just run Mabel!”

Mabel shook her head.

“I’m…I’m not going to run, you’re my brother.”

“You have to run Mabel! Stay away from me, run please! I don’t want to hurt you again!”

“Dipper, stop it!”

Dipper ignored her pleas, he needed her safe.

“Mabel, get out of here please!” Dipper cried desperately.

“I won’t…” Mabel refused.

“I’ll kill you if you stay here! I’ll kill you!” Dipper screamed. He had to scare her off somehow...even if it means hurting her feelings. But he was doing this to protect her.

Mabel was taken aback by his harsh words; she was on the verge of tears; he was treating himself so badly because of this stupid werewolf curse as well.

“Dipper please…stop doing this to yourself!” Mabel protested tearfully.

A loud knock was heard at their bedroom door, though it was more of a pound.

“Dudes what’s going on in there? Are…are you transforming?” Soos shouted from behind the door, his voice full of dread.

Dipper eyed the door then back to Mabel, then back to the door as sweat ran down his face.

“Y-yes…Soos, get the cage and get Mabel out of here, before it’s too late!” he cried desperately.

“This sounds pretty bad…” Soos said nervously to himself. “Mabel, what are you doing in there? You gotta get out of there quick!”

“But…I promised Dipper…”

“Hambone, he’s too dangerous when changing! I know it seems pretty bad to leave him during the transformation, but we don’t know if he’ll even be able to control his wolf form!”

“You…you told me you believed he would turn out to be a puppy.” Mabel sounded dejected.

“I do but puppies chew and bite too Hambone!” Soos answered.

“Please hurry! Mabel won’t leave and she’s bleeding really bad! Please keep her safe!” Dipper yelled.

“Oh geez, _this is_ real bad...”

Soos tried opening the door and pushed against it.

“Dudes, I can’t get in, the door won’t budge!”

“Ah…no…” Dipper muttered as he looked down in despair. “Ma-Mabel…”he stammered weakly.

“Wow, that’s pretty contrived.” Soos remarked

“SOOS NOW IS NOT THE TIME, HURRY!” Dipper screamed.

Mabel stared at the door with wide and thoughtful, yet sad and unsure eyes. She eyed Dipper as he raised his head weakly and looked into Mabel’s eyes.

Mabel turned backed to the door then scanned the room before looking down at her feet.

In those few seconds, Mabel quickly made a decision, a risky decision, but she wanted to do this. No… she had to do this, to get through to Dipper.

Her expression became stern as she took in a deep breath.

“Come on Mabel, open the door! Man this door is stuck pretty tight.” Soos rammed against it as he attempted to force it open with his weight, but to no avail; that and he wore himself out pretty fast.

“Man, breaking through doors is tougher than I thought.” Soos panted. “…would have been real cool if I did though, just like in the action movies heh.”

“Mabel, run please, I…can’t hold it back much longer…” Dipper was starting to choke on his words, his breathing felt constricted.

“Ack, d-don’t worry Dipper, I still got tools on me from building that cage. If Mabel won’t come out, I can just try to get this door open with them. Hang on Hambone I’ll get you out quick-”

Mabel instantly ran up towards the door and leaned against it.

“Soos wait…” Mabel asked gently.

“Mabel? Are you coming out?”

“No, but please listen to what I have to say.”

Soos paused on his work on the door.

“I have a plan I’m…I’m staying in here with Dipper.”

“But...”

“Please he needs me; I know what I’m doing, like you hoped this morning, remember?”

“Yeah…but, you sure he won’t hurt you again?”

“I know he won’t, and I’ll make sure he doesn’t, just wait outside until I call for help if something goes wrong… Please, I understand what he’s going through more than anyone else, I know I can handle this…You believe in me right?” Mabel’s voice was calm and heartfelt.

“Yeah…Yeah I do…do what you need to do...just be careful” he sat down against the door a bit fretfully, though he had faith in Mabel.

Mabel turned herself to Dipper with gloomy yet slightly compassionate look. She was between a smile and a frown as she carefully approached him. He was in a sitting position this time, almost curled up into a ball; he let out a pained cry which made Mabel pause in place, but only for a moment and took a few more steps. She knelt down in front of him and placed a hand gently on his back vest, seemingly stroking it in attempt to comfort him.

“Mabel…” Dipper weakly spoke as he slowly raised his head “Why are you doing this…?”

She did not respond as she stared deep into his eyes sympathetically.

“I-I still trust you and I’m trying to keep our promise… but I also promised not to hurt anyone either, I J-just don’t think it’s safe for you to be here right now…maybe after a few hours…”

“I’m not leaving you, not like this…I can’t, I won’t. I’m staying with you through this; I know that you’re scared of hurting me again. You’re stubborn bro bro and you keep changing your mind about this promise every time you think you’re putting me in danger with your stupid curse. I know this werewolf stuff is pretty dangerous, but I don’t care if I’m in danger by just being with you. I know you’ll never hurt me or anyone else on purpose as a wolf. I know my little brother…I care about you more than my safety right now. I promised to help you through this no matter what, I can take a few scratches to keep you safe and under control.” Mabel hugged him gently and buried her face in his hat.

“I know but…I don’t want to do anything worse.”

“I know….that’s why I’m staying right with you, I’m gonna help you stay yourself…and help you feel safe and alright.”

Dipper was aghast; he was shaking all over as his power to hold back the changes was slipping.

“Mabel…don’t! You can wait outside the door like you said last night! Just barricade it! Let Soos try to open it!” He begged somberly.

Mabel quickly removed her face from his hat as she heart brokenly looked at him in the eyes.

“I’m sorry Dipper, but I’m not leaving you!”

“MABEL NO!” He screamed as he tried shoving her away.

But he could not get her to leave.

                     

                Everything that hurt felt worse than before, probably because he had resisted the transformation for such a long period of time. He felt bones cracking again, his muscles stretching and swelling once again.

Dipper wriggled in Mabel’s arms as his insides shifted while she held on. Mabel refused to let go of her sibling; she continued to stroke his back and kept him close to her body to make Dipper feel safe and at peace, but it obviously wasn’t working. Mabel could feel some of his insides move; at least she thought they were his insides, maybe it was his bones or organs. Or maybe it was just him moving normally, as he seemed to struggle weakly to escape her clutch.

Well, she wasn’t gonna let anything related to this curse push her away again, nothing would now!

Until Mabel felt something disgusting, she felt a bone shift drastically and even heard a disturbing crunch; she actually felt something from his upper back move! It felt like a bone just…popped out of place, breaking, bending and moving.

 ‘Bones should not do that!’ Mabel cried out in her head.

She cringed at this and loosened her hug, grossed out at what she felt; she felt another snap and pop, she let go and recoiled away from him. Ok, maybe she should keep some distance from him, just a little, she thought as she sat on the floor.

 

                The power to the shack suddenly went out, which Soos reacted by saying “Aw nuts.”

Mabel flinched and let out a startled cry as she heard the loud sound of a fuse going out.

The only light source they had was that of the moon, though not full still, it shined brightly through the window in an eerie form.

Dipper let out pained grunt before letting out another cry of helplessness; turning his head to the shining moonlight streaming from the window. Tears ran down his face as he eyed the night sky, he raised a clawed hand out to it before slamming it back down on the floor, now standing on fours with his hands and knees. It was the nightfall itself that caused him to change, not the moon. He drags his claws across the wooden floor as he drew his arm back.

His fate was indeed going to be cruel.

He wept to himself.

“Mabel…please…” he muttered mournfully.

“Dipper, I told you I’m not-”

 “Help…Help me…” Tears rolled down his face more frequently.

“Dipper…” She knew there was no stopping the transformation. “I’m sorry…”

“Please someone…”he was raising his voice “Help…me.”

Mabel shook her head tearfully; she didn’t know what else to do.

“Mabel, help me…please! Someone please help! PLEASE, SOMEONE, PLEASE HELP ME! SOMEONE, ANYONE, HELP ME!” He screamed hauntingly.

“Mabel I’m sorry!” He cried out one last time as the tears continued to flow.


	5. The Transformation

                 The bones in his arms shifted as his muscles swelled, the fur started to sprout across his arms at a rapid pace in large amounts, covering his skin. Even when growing at a fast pace; the suddenly sprouting fur still did not hurt him. His bones also widening as his skin seem to bubble. Not literally though, that would have been much more frightening. Dipper’s arms felt bigger and longer, he was becoming stronger, though it didn’t seem like it from the looks of it. His arms looked a bit larger, but not by much.

He arched his back slightly as he groaned; trying to stay up on his hands and knees while his head   pointed to the ground. Sweat and tears dripped on to the wood flooring as he weeps; wishing for comfort or any way to soothe his pain.

“Please…please stop…”

Dipper’s shoulders shifted around, expanding as the muscles swelled around the changing bones. He felt his shoulders widening and pushing upwards against his back; Dipper did not understand the pushing against his back part, what was that for? He felt the sleeves of his shirt and the arm holes of his vest tighten around his growing shoulders, squeezing them. The fabric began to slowly tear away; fur emerged from the forming holes on his sleeves.

 

                 Mabel tried creeping towards her brother once again, her lips trembling. Dipper’s transformation was becoming increasingly horrifying to Mabel every passing second. His agony seemed to be getting worse from what she was seeing.

She wanted to hug him tightly and never let him go…she would keep him ok.

“Hang in there…I know you can Dipper.” Mabel whispered tearfully through a weak smile.

 

                 A loud audible snap came from Dipper’s spine, he cried out in alarm as Mabel winced and crawled away; letting out a frightened cry herself.

His spine pushed against his back as it rose along with his shoulders. His back and shoulders became hunched, fur traveled across his back and chest but at a slow rate now. His appearance was becoming more beast-like. They pushed against his shirt and vest; large tears started forming as his back grew. Dipper took notice of this as he heard and felt his mutating back trying to rip through it. He forced himself to fight against his agony as he got up and balanced on his knees, wobbling as he quickly slipped off his vest and threw it across the floor in front of him. Dipper’s claws slightly sunk into it as he hastily took it off but thankfully it didn’t cause anymore tearing.

The removal of his vest revealed that the back of his orange shirt had two very large tear holes; one was starting from collar and heading downwards; the other was ripping horizontally across his lower back.

Dipper’s spine could be seen against his flesh as he doubled over once again, showing lumps going down vertically. His malformed shoulder blades could be seen as well, though they seemed to slowly blend in with his changing back over time.

Dipper’s chest expanded, pushing outwards. His ribs pressed against his skin, almost appearing dome shaped in a way or something else. He found it difficult to breathe as his lungs changed along with his chest; and he thought he felt constricted earlier. He gasped for air and tried taking in deep breaths as his chest deformed. Dipper’s voice was noticeably becoming deeper as well as he struggled for air, he did not sound like he was becoming older but…more animal.

His gut sucked in just a bit, he did not feel much pain from that part.

He could not take it any longer; he stood on his knees again and clawed at his chest helplessly, he felt like his chest was going to burst open.

“Stop…Stop it!” he begged.

His shirt tightened around his chest, constricting it. Dipper sank his claws deep into his shirt.

“I…I can’t…”

Savagely, he tore his shirt open, screaming in pain, ripping it off and let it fall to the floor, tattered. His hat slid off his head to the floor gently. His bandages had been stretching along when his arms were widening earlier; now they were at the point where they could no longer stay wrapped on and tore off; his remaining wound hidden by his fur.

Dipper saw his deformed bare chest for just a minute before his entire torso was covered in long brown shaggy fur.

His body was no longer human looking at all; it looked more like it now belonged to a wolf. He studied himself, terrified.

His fur growing traveled to rest of his body, his legs and feet as well. Strangely his heels felt they were also…softening? At least that’s what it felt like…

The black lumps began to form under his toes and front part of his feet, fur grew around and between them as well. His feet were starting to look like paws…that was not the end of it though.

Dipper cried out in alarm once again as his feet snapped, he didn’t understand why though. In confusion and in a panic, he tried to get up on his feet. Dipper clumsily wandered over to his bed and fell halfway onto it, now trying to lift himself off the bed.

Mabel was shaking fearfully as she watched.

Dipper was now forced to stand on the front part of his feet, ‘walking on your toes’ as they call it. His feet began to stretch out, his heels and the rest of his feet becoming thinner, now starting to resemble part of his legs than his feet.  He was becoming much taller as the muscles in his legs swelled, his thighs widening and reshaping, his knees slightly buckling. His big toes slowly traveled up his stretching feet before settling a few inches away from the other toes; becoming dew claws. During that part of the transformation, he thought his feet were being torn apart and his toes were being ripped off. The front part of his feet and toes slightly reformed its self, before finally completing its transformation into paws; his legs now that of a wolf.

Dipper slipped off his bed and fell back to the floor, now able to stand on fours like a wolf.

His spine spasmed once again, but for a completely different reason now; his spine seemed to be growing longer, pushing against the lower end of his back, but this time the skin seemed to be growing along with it. He felt like he was getting a new limb, fur covered it rapidly as it grew; now starting to move.

Dipper felt it pushing against the seat of his shorts; he slipped them off and discovered he had grown a long bushy tail; tucking it between his legs. His tail felt quite sensitive, shivering along with his legs as his fear took over his body. He looked at his window reflection again, now looking like a frightened, miserable creature. The tears were flowing faster as he felt a small part of him give into his ever growing despair; the long, agonizing transformation was taking its toll on Dipper’s emotions.

His transformation was nearing completion, and when it was complete…well, whatever what was going happen to him next, it certainly wasn’t going to be a good thing…he might not even remember what he had done as a monster.

The only thing that he was almost certain about was that things would continue to get even worse from here on out.

               

                The transformation was much worse than he could ever imagine, every second was torture during the whole ordeal. It wasn’t anything like the films of old where the transformation process hardly seems to bother the victims, and painful transformations in other films looked under exaggerated compared to what he was experiencing. Some films had werewolves enjoy their changes which made Dipper beg the question why.

Dipper gritted his teeth; he could not take any more of this, he wished he was only dreaming; this whole thing felt like a nightmare…a very long, slow and painful nightmare, both physically and mentally. He just wanted to fall to the floor and curl up into a ball. Even with Mabel close by, he still felt very much alone; he certainly wasn’t human anymore as he gradually lost his real self; and he feared if he tried seeking comfort from her, he would end up only bringing Mabel more harm.

He desperately wanted comfort more than ever; all he wanted now was someone to hug him tight.

 

                Mabel felt chills go through her during the changes, her heart felt as if it was freezing cold and being pierced. The entire time she had her eyes glued on her sobbing little brother; she wanted to look away at the very disturbing parts but she could not pull her eyes away no matter how hard she tried.

She also felt her heart break every time he screamed and cried loudly, leaving a haunting feeling throughout the shack.

 

                Mabel’s nerves seem to slowly die down as she noticed Dipper’s transformation seem to be calming down just a bit, but not by much…How much longer did Dipper have to suffer? She wanted to go near him again, soothing him as his ordeal came to an end…

Tears were escaping from Mabel’s eyes; her heart could not bear this anymore. He was in so much pain for such a long amount of time.

Why did Dipper have to suffer through all this? Of course it was because of the curse but…why Dipper?

He was suffering so much…just…just leave him alone!

She squeezed her eyes shut as tears rolled down her cheeks. She opened them sadly to the sight of Dipper covering his still human face with his clawed hands, now sitting like dog, sobbing in a manner like if he was struggling to breathe. He was unaware of the way he was sitting, his mind on other things.

He looked so alone shivering over there.

Mabel gripped her right hand tightly onto her sweaters left sleeve in stress as she felt his pain.

Mabel felt her heart urging her to go to him, wanting to get close to him again and hug him.

His transformation should be over soon…maybe it was safe to be closer to him again, she could not comfort him during his thrashing earlier as his claws would have caught her; the dangerous parts seemed to be over now.

Without a second thought, she rose to her feet and approached Dipper cautiously once again, her eyes filled with sympathy. She kneeled behind him and placed a hand carefully on his back, while keep a small distance from him at the same time.

 “It’s almost over bro bro, it’s ok…I’m still here.” she said softly, her fingers sinking into his shaggy fur, moving her fingers through it calmly.  She leaned slightly towards him, wanting to give him an ‘attempt’ hug. His crying seemed to lighten up a little, but he still sounded so frightened; she felt his body twitch and shake.

She could not give him a comforting smile, her heart hurting too much for him.

“Dipper please relax just a little…y-you’re making me cry too…It will be over soon! At least I think it is.”

Feeling braver, Mabel moved closer and leaned on his back, now trying to actually hug him.

“It’s ok…it will be ok…”

               

                 Dipper felt Mabel run her fingers rather timidly through his fur, probably careful and nervous that he might lash out, he thought. He did feel some form of solace from her; however it wasn’t enough to relax him, knowing he wasn’t finished yet. He was finding himself wanting to pass out and sleep through the night...yet at the same time; he felt a strange rush of energy starting to go through him.

Was this the part where he loses awareness of himself?

“Oh…oh man oh man…don’t lose it, just keep it together…”

His thoughts raced in his head of what to say to his sister.

“M-Mabel…”

“Shh…it’s ok Dipper.”

“No Mabel, wait…don’t come near…” His voice weak; it was a bit late to warn her about not coming closer.

“Dipper just let me stay next to you for a sec.” she sounded like she was about to fall asleep against him.

“No Mabel, I think I’m slipping!”

“I’m not pushing against you that hard, you’re not sliding across the floor.”

“No I mean my mind!”

Mabel leaned away from him, her face appearing concerned.

“Try to ease up…” she said calmly.

“That’s not gonna work! I’m gonna tear someone apart when this is over!”

“Chill out, stop being negative, maybe you’ll be ok!”

“Have you ever heard of a werewolf staying themselves?”

“Yeah and you have too…you still think that’s gonna happen?” she looked worriedly at him. “Are you thinking any differently?” she whispered.

“I-I think so, I don’t know actually…I don’t know!” he cried out. “I-I-I can’t focus!”

Mabel moved over to his side, putting her hand again on his back.

“Well you’re still you to me so far…you’re just really scared. So you’re good right now.” Mabel kept her voice soft to keep him relaxed.

Dipper said nothing as he stared at the floor.

“Maybe you shouldn’t worry about becoming feral too much…”

“Why…why do you say that?”

“Because maybe you will get mean as a wolf if you believe that you will too much.”

“What?”

“I mean, well, if you really believe that you will become feral, you will become feral…like you believed in it so much you think you really are feral. I can’t seem to describe it right…anyway maybe you should think about calming things and maybe you’ll turn out ok? I did suggest something like that earlier…before you got mad at me…” she gave him a nervous smile mixed with a sad glance.

He eyed her with regret for snapping at her earlier.

Dipper flinched and his eyes grew big, he was beginning to feel strange.

“Try to think of stuff that makes you feel safe and cozy, like naps or books or-”

Right then and there, Dipper’s head was beginning to throb; a horrible sharp pain took over it, spreading to his face and neck, burning.

He let out a loud heart breaking wail as it struck him, scaring Mabel. She flinched a little and backed away before calming herself. Mabel held her hand out to Dipper as she was leaning back.

Dipper grabbed his head as he winced, gritting his teeth as he squeezed his eyes shut; his claws digging into his hair.

Mabel crawled back to her brother with great concern.

“Is…is it the last part?”

Dipper managed to turn himself to Mabel with torment in his eyes.

Mabel’s eyes grew large with sorrow.

His hair seemed to be…changing or moving? It was difficult to describe to Mabel.

It was difficult to focus, difficult to think, he had trouble getting the words out of his mouth, and he tried to hold back his change again but to no avail.

“Mabel…Mabel I know you heard this a thousand times but, get out of here while you still can!”

“And I told you a million times, I’m not leaving you! I won’t ever leave you like this!”

Dipper’s teeth were starting to change shape; he was running out of time.

“Mabel, get away from me, run! Please I beg you!”

“No I won’t!”

“Mab-”his voice cut off by his own screams as his neck widened, swallowing a bunch of air.

Mabel crawled away from him in terror.

The worst and last part was happening.

 

                Dipper’s hair seemed to change in a way, becoming fur instead of human hair; the fur spread across his neck, ears and face, his ears stretched slowly to a pointed shaped, gaining some movement.

As the fur nearly covered his face, his skull pushed out.

 

                He screamed helplessly as his skull changed shape; his nose and mouth pushed out, forming a muzzle. He found it hard to breathe for that moment. His voice was deepening even more, he cried out Mabel’s name in a low and growly voice. He could not close his mouth as it lengthened, crying out until his voice was gone, no longer able to speak to Mabel as she could no longer understand him, only the sounds of a fearsome beast remained in his voice’s place. Tears ran down his changing face, his skull felt like it was flattening in a way. His tongue grew along with his jaws, feeling smoother.

His teeth grew longer, sharper, becoming monstrous fangs. His jaws becoming powerful as well, snapping them shut when they finished lengthening. He snarled to himself lowly in pain, he was frightened of the sounds coming out of him; he certainly was becoming a beast. His nose was pitch black now, the skin of his nose changed its texture; it also became cold and wet, his nose now that of a wolf’s. His sense of smell increased, but he didn’t recognize a lot of the new smells; his hearing improved as well as his ears moved up his skull, the surrounding noises becoming louder. He was overwhelmed by his stronger senses, now having a sensory overload. He tried covering his nose and flattening his ears, trying to have his improved senses under control but found it difficult to do so.

               

                Dipper pointed his head down, snarling as the transformation was finishing up, he…he was fully a werewolf now; a very dangerous and vicious beast with a taste for humans. He shivered timidly; he had no idea what to do now; hiding in a corner or fleeing out the window felt like a good idea. Just hiding somewhere away from his family and friends where he could not hurt them and learn to control himself; not far away from them, just somewhere safe. Wait did he just repeat or contradict himself? He was freaking out all over the place in his head, he could not think straight as the pain of the small finishing changes still bothered him.

‘Just focus Dipper!’ he told himself in his head ‘Focus, come on focus, just think about good thoughts, n-nothing bad is gonna happen…right?’

A second later, Dipper was starting to feel strange, like he wasn’t feeling like himself at all; strange emotions and ideas were filling his head, frightening and violent ones.

His mind was being overwhelmed by thoughts that were not his own.

‘Oh no…’

He felt hatred, rage, viciousness and cruelty; he wanted to sink his teeth and claws into someone, he wanted them to suffer greatly. His hunger felt like it would never be satisfied, he wanted to eat something…live and human, and he wanted a large amount of it.

‘No…no!’

His snarling grew louder as these thoughts clouded his mind, his fearsome jaws opened slightly; yet Dipper himself was still there, trying to fight off these ideas, he refused to give in, he can’t give in, not with her here…not ever.

 

                 “Dipper? Are you ok, what’s wrong?” Mabel noticed something seemed off, she stood up.

“Dipper are…are you still you?” something was definitely wrong, he was struggling with something even though the transformation seemed to be over. She heard a whimper escape from him as he growled. Her mouth slightly dropped in sorrow.

“Mabel what’s going on in there now?” Soos cried. “Is he done transforming? He sounds pretty vicious…”

Mabel was quiet, she did need Soos still just in case, but…she felt like she could handle this alone…she believed she could pacify Dipper if he lost control…somehow.

She made her next choice.

“Soos?”

“Yeah Mabel?”

“Can you…go downstairs; I think I need some space to take care of the rest.”

“You sure hambone?” Soos sounded confused and worried.

“Yeah, I think we’re good, I’ll still call you if I need you. I just need to be alone with Dipper, like really alone so I can keep him calm.”

“Al…Alright. I still believe in you.”

She heard him go down the steps and Mabel turned to her now wolf brother with sympathy.

“Dipper?”

 

                 ‘Ma…bel…Mabel run!’ he cried out in his head, she needed to get out of here, he wasn’t sure how long he could fight off the urges. He shook his head and turned to Mabel, baring his fangs in a frightening manner, but his sad eyes betrayed his snarl. Why was Mabel doing this? She knew at this point he was turning dangerous, she didn’t need send Soos away…don’t come any closer Mabel!

“Mabel, don’t!” he cried out.

But an agonized roar mixed with a growl came out by mistake. Mabel took a step back from him cautiously; it sounded intimidating yet she could sense a desperate plea from it, Dipper’s eyes confirmed it.

“Dipper, please hold on.” Mabel pleads.

 

                Dipper lowered his head as tears ran down his snout, he felt his control slipping as the urges had near complete control of him. He was going to kill her at this rate and there was nothing else he could do unless she fled from him. He was becoming the same creature that he saved her from, and what she saved him from.

A werewolf…a monster.

Dread and despair filled his heart as he felt trapped by his fate. He wanted to cry out again, he wanted to beg, he wanted sob endlessly. 

Something was building up in his chest at the same time, like a scream. Air filled his lungs rapidly and he felt it building up in his throat too, giving him some difficulty breathing; he had to let it out.

Dipper rose to two legs, standing tall as he towered over Mabel, now taller than Mabel but he hasn’t cared about that anymore since the shrinking incident. He was much taller now as a werewolf, but not much compared to the werewolf they encountered.

Dipper eyed Mabel sorrowfully; she saw the tears ran down his helpless furry face. He held his arms out in front of him, his palms of his clawed hands facing up, his fingers curled up half way, twitching.

“Dipper…” Mabel reached out to him sympathetically.

She noticed his sad eyes changing color, brightening to a yellow color; Dipper let out a pained whine as he closed his eyes shut.

Mabel took a step forward, she stopped as she heard him growl, lowering his head.

“Are you ok?”

 She drew her hand back as Dipper then threw his head back and let out a long, loud and heartbroken howl.

His transformation was complete.

               

            To Mabel, Dipper’s howling seemed to be a way of expressing how he felt about all this, sad, scared and helpless, expressing his own pain as well. Dipper’s howl was quite frightening and lonely sounding to Mabel as well, but it was also a very pretty and calming sound. Mabel stared at him in awe as she was frozen in place, she did not want to interrupt him as he seemed to be soothed by his own howl, and she wanted to enjoy this moment of peace herself as well.

 

            Dipper found himself mesmerized by his own howl, feeling a sense of peace. He howled once again, much longer and sorrowful sounding, carefully lowering himself to all fours as his howl came to a slow end.

 

            He shook his furry body and pointed his head down once again with his eyes still closed, panting at a slow pace. Dipper just stood there idle, appearing to be settling down from his ordeal; his lips and nose twitched slightly, he let out small whimpers as he shivered. He stood a few feet from Mabel who was waiting perfectly still and observing him; waiting for her brother’s next move.

‘Poor Dipper…’ she thought to herself.

Mabel was silent, her expression curious yet uneasy, everything looked ok now but was it really?

“Dipper?” she asked, checking if he was fine. He did not react to his name and stayed in his position.

Mabel took a few cautious steps towards him, not wanting to spook him or break his moment of being untroubled. She stopped for a second before taking a few more slow careful steps, he did not seem to be aware that Mabel was approaching him, something felt odd about this. She finally stood next to him; still not paying any attention to his sister.

Mabel reached out to him slowly with heed, her hand shaking nervously. She felt a tiny bit excited to feel his fur…but he still hasn’t done a thing since his transformation ended.

“Dipper…is everything ok? Do you feel alright?” she asked anxiously, her hand barely touching his head.

Dipper’s head swiftly turned to Mabel; she gasped and jumped back in surprise as she was greeted by his large fangs. He snarled at her ferociously as his jaws slightly opened, his yellow eyes brighter than ever glared right through her; his expression was filled with rage and was cold hearted. His brown fur stood on his back and his ears flattened against his head.

Mabel held her hands up in defense, this wasn’t like Dipper. Something was definitely wrong.

“Dipper…just chill out…” she reached out carefully again and Dipper attempted to snap at her. She recoiled in shock as his jaws barely missed her hand.

Mabel’s eyes grew big in horror.

“Oh no…D-Dip-Dipper?”  Mabel backed away from him slowly, she realized what was happening and she wished it wasn’t true.

Dipper was not himself, the curse had taken control.

The werewolf brother crept slowly towards her in a menacing manner, keeping his cold eyes on her as more wrinkles appeared on his snout; watching her every move, his tail sticking out.

He no longer saw Mabel as the sister he was trying to protect and cared for dearly; he now just saw her as his prey.

If Mabel came across Dipper like this without knowing about his curse, she wouldn’t even recognize him, nothing about his wolf form stuck out as familiar, she could not find a physical feature left over from his human form other than the messy fur on his head which still resembled his human hair but even then it wouldn’t help much to identify him if she didn’t know it was him.

Dipper’s snarling increased in volume every time Mabel made the smallest movement, like he was taking everything she did as a threat.

She felt so awful, Dipper had fallen to the very issue he wanted to avoid, and he was trying so hard to prevent this. She was afraid of the transformed Dipper; he was unpredictable like this, but he was still her brother.  She refused to give up; the real Dipper had to still be in there somewhere.

“Dipper, this isn’t you, you don’t want to do this…I know you’re in there. You can hear me right?”

Dipper took another snap at her and she flinched away, gasping.

Mabel backed away carefully from Dipper until she found herself leaning against the tub she used for her plushie shower. She moved her hands behind her back and clutched the rims of the tub.

“Dipper please, I don’t want to hurt you and you don’t wanna hurt me; where’s the bro bro I know and love?”

The werewolf’s face seemed to relax just a bit, letting out a small whimper. He then started thrashing his head and grabbed it.

“Dipper? Are you back?”

The wolf fell back onto fours growling, fresh tears ran down his face.

Dipper was still in there!

“It’s ok, I know you can fight it, come on Dipper!”

The werewolf roared in response, crouching down as he prepared to pounce on her.

“W-wait, don’t it’s me! Your sister! Don’t do it!”

He dived towards her, jaws open.

“Dipper no, stop!” she cried in terror.

Quickly reacting in self-defense, she picked up the tub and whacked it across her wolf brother’s face, who was in midair. He yelped and tumbled across the floor as he made contact with the tub; Mabel felt bad that she had to do that, it wasn’t his fault he was acting like this.

Mabel stared at him with a forlorn expression as he gathered himself back up, snarling and whimpering.

“I’m so sorry, I never wanted to hurt you…” she told the transformed Dipper regretfully. “This isn’t you, just please come back…” She begged.

Dipper whined through his baring fangs and took a step back, tilting his head.

Mabel gave him an encouraging smile and walked towards him carefully.

“Yeah, that’s right…it’s ok, just relax, I’m here…”

The werewolf stayed still, shaking.

“There there, I’m ok, I’m not hurt.”

The wolf reared up on two legs clumsily, shaking his head snarling and whimpering.

“Yeah, you got it!”

Suddenly Dipper threw himself onto Mabel, pinning her to the ground. The creature found its chance to attack as she left herself open.  It happened so fast Mabel had no time to defend herself this time, she gasped as he charged at her and knocked her down; she landed on her back with a thud, the wind was knocked out of her.

Mabel whimpered and opened her eyes, staring straight deep into Dipper’s bright yellow eyes as he pinned her down; his jaws half way open. She could see her brother trapped within the wolf body through his eyes; she had to get through to him before he made a meal out of her; she feared for her life. Yet Mabel trusted him so much from her heart; she still believed dearly that he would win this inner battle.

Mabel gave him a pleading look as tears ran down her cheeks.

“Dipper, please it’s me, Mabel! You remember me right? I’m your sister, your twin!”

Dipper just glared at her; however he was taking a while to finish her off…maybe just maybe.

“Please don’t do this!” her voice more desperate than ever. “I know you don’t want to, you’re not a monster. I can tell you’re listening, I believe you can control this; you can do it! You would never hurt me or anyone else…” she sobbed.

“Please…I love you bro bro…please don’t hurt me…” she cried to herself, hoping Dipper would come to before it was too late.

 

               The werewolf’s eyes widen and his ears lowered; his expression softened as the wrinkles faded from his snout, no longer showing his fangs. He whimpered and closed his eyes, turning his head away from Mabel. The tears ran faster down his snout, he removed his paw hand from her, freeing her.

Mabel stayed where she was despite being freed, wanting to see if Dipper was truly back; her eyes hopeful yet sad.

“Dipper?” She asked softly as she sat up.

The wolf turned to her again and slowly opened his eyes, the yellow faded to brown.

He shook his head with remorse and had a heartbroken expression.

The real Dipper had returned.


	6. The Wolf Boy

        Mabel gave him a tiny smile and tried touching his head. Dipper eyed her hand and quickly backed away from Mabel, his body shaking.

He…he attacked her…a-and…he tried to hurt…

He pointed his head down, ashamed of what he tried to do. He was relieved he was able to control his body but…he should regained control sooner…no, he should have had control to begin with. He put Mabel in grave danger because of his carelessness; he should have busted down the door and fled from the shack after his muzzle finished. But no he just stood there and let himself…it didn’t matter anymore what Mabel told him, he was still dangerous. He looked around nervously, breathing quickly and whimpering before scrambling to one of the corners of the room. Dipper huddled up tightly in the corner, shivering in fear, he looked timidly at Mabel. Mabel appeared to be mostly alright but frazzled, her hand was still a bleeding, but very little now. Dipper found himself looking sadly into Mabel’s eyes; she looked concerned and hurt emotionally as she carefully rose to her feet.

She took one step towards him before Dipper reacted by flinching and letting out a loud growl, attempting to give her a warning in his transformed body; he did not want her to come any closer as he feared might lose control again and lash out.

 

          Mabel held still for a moment, feeling scared of his growl, but despite it, his expression showed grief and fear. She could tell he was trying scare her off and his growl was nothing more than a bluff. She understood Dipper was just trying to keep her safe, but Mabel had to give him her reassurance, as she found his feelings more important than her safety.

Now that Dipper had snapped out of his trance, he looked less like a fearsome beast and more like a frightened, scolded puppy.

‘Poor thing…’Mabel thought, she wanted to hug and pet him to comfort him, she had to be careful still though, she wanted to keep him calm and she didn’t want him freak out and run away or act out whatever crazy ideas that was in his head right now.

 

          Dipper watched her anxiously as he scooted deeper into the corner, his tail instinctively trying to go between his legs. He slowly crouched down and raised a front hand-paw. He had to flee the shack safely when he got his chance…no more fooling around! He had to wait for the perfect moment or Mabel might jump on top of him and pin him down, or he could just shake her off with his werewolf strength…if he can that is. Still he might bring more harm to her by accident if he tries…better wait till he could escape without her trying to intervene.

 

           Mabel tilted her head slightly as she observed her large wolf bro, he was whimpering like crazy and shaking, Mabel could not break away from his eyes, she sighed.

“Dipper…it’s ok, it’s alright, you don’t have to be scared anymore…”

Mabel approached him slowly; Dipper was eyeing both the door and the window, looking for his chance to escape, he had to be quick but his body was frozen as Mabel approached.

Mabel tried to give him a warm smile and reached a hand out carefully.

“Hey…Hey it’s ok, don’t be upset…I’m ok and you’re ok.” She spoke softly. “See you didn’t hurt me…”

Dipper’s raised his head carefully and his ears slowly perked, still looking nervous.

“Yeah, that’s right its ok, just stay calm, no need to be scared, you know me, I know you didn’t mean to attack me…I still want to help you.”

Dipper seemed to shake his head a little, as if he was saying no, it was very human like the way he shook it, looking quite strange for a wolf, but it was also kind of cute. Mabel noticed the werewolf pup was starting to panic again as his whimpering increased.

“No no no no, don’t freak out bro bro! Just be easy; you’re you again. We want you to stay like this right?  I mean the being you and relaxed parts…Please just stay calm…” she was getting closer, too close for Dipper’s comfort.

He was starting to creep slowly away from her                                   and eyed the door with anticipation, his eyes growing big in fear, his mouth agape.

‘Mabel stop, please! You’re just going to get hurt again, go away!’ he cried out in his head.

“Dipper, don’t run away, come on, I just want to-”

Dipper could not stay silent any longer; Mabel was putting herself in danger. He had to scare her and push her away.

“STAY AWAY FROM ME!” he screamed; his eyes steely as he showed a little bit of his fangs in warning. He flinched and froze in place in realization after he cried out, staring straight into Mabel’s eyes…Did…did he just speak? Can he still talk like this? He was making wolf sounds earlier, he thought what he said would come out as a roar. But that was his own human voice he heard come out of him, there was no mistaking it. But why could he still talk? He heard it fade and change!

Dipper let out a surprised whine over this discovery while Mabel stayed still in shock.

 

           Mabel’s eyes grew wide and she took a surprised step back, her little brother just spoke as a wolf, and she could understand him.             

“D-Dipper? Is that you? You can still talk?” she had a relieved grin though somewhat nervous looking. She wasn’t imagining this was she? Please be real…

“Can you…?” a bit of hope lit up inside her.

Dipper’s eyes grew big and he looked away, could she…?

“I-I guess, I guess I can? Did you understand what I just said?” he inched away from her slightly.

“Yeah I can!” Mabel could not help but get delighted by this new discovery. “That’s great bro! You can still talk to people as a wolf! That’s at least one thing turning out ok so far about this werewolf curse, so maybe it’s not going to be totally bad being one.” She said with an unsure tone and an uncomfortable smile.

Dipper gave her an annoyed look as he slightly lowered his head, his eyes still on her; this gave him an unsettling angry appearance.

Mabel glanced away nervously for a moment.

“I mean that’s great right…right?”

Dipper’s expression was still upset; he didn’t seem to care much for this discovery.

“Kinda…sorta…it doesn’t feel that big of a deal to me at the moment though…” he looked away, his eyes turned glum. “I mean yeah that’s great and all and it does help me out a bunch…but it doesn’t feel it matters that much right now after what I just tried doing to you...you can’t just brush that off.” he trailed off with a whine.

Mabel frowned; he was really guilty about what he tried to do.

“Hey don’t beat yourself up bro bro that was just an accident and that wasn’t really you, come on just chill out…” she took a few steps more as she reached again to him.

Dipper jumped back in fear.

“NO!” Dipper snarled a warning at her “Stay back…just please stay back!”

Mabel flinched away slightly by his sudden reaction but she still wasn’t fooled, once again his heartbroken eyes betrayed his snarl.

Her expression became serious in a sympathetic way.

“Dipper come on, knock it off, I know you’re faking it to protect me.”

“Mabel call Soos, hurry, I don’t want to attack you again, just leave please.”

“Dipper you’re you again, you’re not going to attack me anymore, it’s over, its ok now so just chillax.” Her tone slightly frustrated.

Dipper shook his head in frustration and glared right through her.

“You don’t get it do you? This control probably won’t even last, I might lose it again, and things are definitely not going to be ok! No more excuses, no more exceptions, no more risks! I’m not fooling around with this curse anymore! You can’t stay with me anymore!” He growled. “Mabel, call Soos now, before things get any worse!” his fangs were glistening. “Do it now!” he demanded angrily.

Mabel felt a chill go down her spine. Even though he was in control, his anger felt intimidating. But she would not let it get to her.

“I’m not going to, no matter how desperate or bad it gets, I told you this.”

“I know but it’s not working! If it gets any worse I might make a snack out of you, you have to go now!”

“I told you I’m not leaving no matter how much you hurt me; I know you. I’ll help you and make things better, I’ll do my hardest; and I’ll keep telling you what I said every time you go against it. You won’t lose control again any time soon!” she said sternly through watering eyes.

“What makes you think that, what makes you think I won’t lose it again anytime soon?”

“What makes you think you will?”

Dipper’s eyes grew big and looked around unsure before glaring at her again

“Go away…” he snarled “Get out of here!

“Dipper stop it.”

“Go now!” he roared, he jumped towards her to frighten her.

Mabel stood were she was. The two locked eyes, neither of them moving. Dipper’s glare was starting to weaken from Mabel’s sad and serious expression. She was still unfazed by his snarl, she watched him silently she sighed as she saw him slowly drop his façade. Dipper was trembling, he couldn’t keep doing this, and he knew his sister knew better.

“Dipper stop...stop it…you know it’s not working, I said I’m not leaving, not ever, I’m sticking by what I said earlier. You don’t have to keep acting like a jerky monster anymore.”

Dipper’s curled lips lowered a little and his eyes widen, he raised his head in realization and looked to his side.

“I…I-I’m sorry, I didn’t want to…I just…”

“…want me safe?”

“…Yeah…you know it well by now.” Dipper sat down like a dog, his tail curled around his legs.

It was quiet for a while; the silence added a sense of sorrow between the twins.

“Dipper…” Mabel said sadly as she knelt down.

“Mabel…I have to tell you something…” his tone softer “You-you know how in the stories, how when the cursed person turns into a werewolf, they don’t remember what they did as one? It’s nothing like that, nothing like that at all. I remembered, I remembered what I tried to do. I remember what happened, snarling at you, how I tried to hurt you, me trying to regain control and what you said to me…all of it…even when I...” Dipper’s eyes grew bigger in horror “When I had you…p-pinned down…and-and…I…I…tried to-” Dipper squeezed his eyes shut and slightly moved his head away, his wolf face oddly human like in expressions as he grimaced sadly. A whine escaped his muzzle as he sighed. He opened his eyes again and looked deep into Mabel’s with guilt, he let out a large breath of air in stress.

“I-I never wanted to do any of those things, I tried everything I could to stop it, when I was out of control, I could still see everything I was doing and think, but I couldn’t do a thing about it until I regained control.

It felt like something else was controlling my body and making me do those things, I never felt so hungry and angry…and they weren’t even my emotions. I was so scared…all I could do was watch what was happening and scream inside my head to stop, I felt so trapped, I tried my hardest to scream and cry out so you could hear me. I could still feel everything even when you hit me with that tub.”

“Sorry about that.”

“No its ok, I’m glad you did…but why didn’t you kick me away w-when…when I-”

“Had me against the floor; I didn’t really think about it then, I was too scared to think about anything else other than hope you would return…” she tried giving him a comforting smile.

Dipper’s expression remained unchanged.

“You were lucky that time, next time if I do that again you have to kick me, I’m worried I won’t be able to stop myself in time if it happens again…I don’t even want to think about if I…oh man. Mabel, when I saw you scared like that and telling me to stop…I…I...I’m so sorry; I never wanted to put you in danger…this is all my fault.” He closed his eyes and looked away silently.

Mabel frowned, poor Dipper was taking this really hard, and despite what he believed, it wasn’t his fault. She moved a bit closer to him.

“Dipper I’m sure you’ll get better at controlling yourself over time, I mean you’re doing pretty well right now.”

“What if it gets worse instead of better?” he muttered hopelessly.

“I don’t believe that a bit Dipper. Now look bro, I don’t want our convos to keep going in circles about you’re werewolf curse. I’m talking about the parts of you being doom and gloom and how you keep thinking everything’s hopeless and that I need to go away. Just that stuff; I get it, you’re really scared. But what you’re doing isn’t helping…now come on bro, I think you need a hug more than anything…come here, it’s gonna be alright…” she held her hand out once again.

Dipper shook his head “No…”

“Fine, but that’s still not going to stop me.”

“No, don’t. Just get out of here…” he eyed her worriedly.

“Stop saying that…”

“J-j-just leave!”

Mabel ignored him as she reached out; Dipper snapped his jaws at her but he did not lunge at her, Mabel gave him an unamused look, seeing through his trick again; she slowly tried placing her hand on his head. Dipper gave her a horrified look and was holding still rather stiffly. Dipper’s ears flattened as he sank down where he sat. He was shaking his head fearfully as he tried mouthing the word no.

“NO!” he forcibly pushed away her hand.

“Ow hey, Dipper don’t scratch me again                , those things are sharp!” Mabel cried in surprise.

 “Nonononono! I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry, I-I-I…”

“Dipper just calm down please; I never seen you freak out so bad before...I don’t want to see you like this!”

Dipper was shivering uncontrollably; he squeezed his eyes shut tightly.

“Mabel please, I-I-I-I…” he paused for a moment and exhaled in a stressed manner, he opened his terrified eyes. “I don’t want to hurt you, I don’t want to hurt you, I don’t want to hurt you, I-I don’t w-want to…” his shivering increased; he was breathing uneasily, sounding helpless and lost. He was appearing to be on the verge of a mental breakdown; he covered his eyes with his hand paws in stress and shook his head. Dipper let out a sad whine as he lowered his head, his black nose twitching slightly, his lips curled back but not a sound of a growl escaped from them, just some quiet sobbing from the cursed young boy.

“I’m so sorry for all this…” he said quietly in despair. “I just wanted you to leave so I couldn’t hurt you anymore like this…”

“Dipper, it’s ok now, you can stop trying.” Mabel whispered.

“I’m scared…I’m really scared…I’m scared about all of this, I don’t know what to do anymore right now, Mabel, I’m so sorry for hurting you…I just want you safe…from me.” He was choking up. “I didn’t mean to be so hard on you…I’m so sorry, I didn’t want to hurt anyone like this…I want help but I’m afraid I’ll just…”

“Dipper…”

Mabel wrapped her arms around his shaggy neck, and pressed her face against the side of his head, his head resting on her shoulder.

“It’s ok…it’s ok…I understand.”

Dipper let his body relax as he finally allowed her to approach him in wolf form; he tilted his head slightly into hers, and wept.

The large werewolf pup sobbed in Mabel’s arms, tears ran down his muzzle as he leaned in closer to her, his body seeking comfort from her. Sad wolf whines came out of him occasionally as he cried; he let out larger shivers amongst his smaller ones, he seemed to rub his furry cheek against Mabel’s head.

Mabel scratched his neck gently to ease his sorrow, his shivering died down a bit but he was still crying quite loudly. Mabel let go of his neck and leaned against his chest, hugging it and his left arm as she buried her face in his furry body. She nestled in his long brown fur, petting him calmly as she lied on his body, closing her eyes. A werewolf’s fur, Dipper’s fur at least so far, was the comfiest thing Mabel had felt in a while. His fur was so lush; she never felt fur this soft before; her fingers ran through it steadily as she rubbed her face against him. So soft…so warm, it was like lying on a cloud, she thought. She didn’t want to move from her soothing spot, she smiled warmly as her eyes slowly opened. She felt her brother’s chest heaving and his heart pounding as he continued to cry. After a minute of this, she let out a large breath of air and squeezed the fur on his arm and nuzzled her cheek against his fur. Her smile faltering a little as tears began to form again, she wiped them from her eyes.

“Dipper…It’s ok to cry bro bro…I know…just let it out, it’ll help, it’s better to do this instead…you don’t need to push me away…I’m here for you.” she whispered, she cried much quieter than Dipper, she let out a tiny sob and sniffled as she tried pressing her face deeper into him, crying softly into his fur. She kept her weak smile on her face, her fingers digging into him as she felt her own grief and stress overtaking her.

Dipper’s sobbing became quieter as he felt his sister sink into his body, hearing her cry along with him. His ears flicked slightly and his nose twitched, he glanced at her with his teary eyes. He shook his head like a dog and gave her a whimper of sympathy, he made a wolf snort-sneeze and lifted his right hand from the floor; it carefully hovered behind Mabel.

“Mabel…h-hey…” His tone was mature, despite still crying. “I’m here for you too…”

Dipper placed a clawed hand gently on her back as he hugged her back, he pat her lightly and rubbed her back slowly. He was cautious of his claws while doing so; his paw hand was rather shaky and he was eyeing his hand and Mabel nervously. His ears twitched anxiously; he sniffled, wiped his eyes and cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry…”he said quietly

“You don’t have to keep apologizing bro bro.” Mabel whispered “It’s over with, I forgive you and it wasn’t entirely your fault.”

“Sorry, wait, I mean…I mean I am sorry but…um.” Dipper stammered for the right words.

Mabel snickered.

“Heh heh, I get you Dipper…”She snuggled in him once again, happily giggling; she wiped some of her tears away as she rubbed her face in his fur.

Dipper gave her a small smile and then looked around deep in thought; it was quiet for a minute or two other than the sound of soft crying that was dying down. Mabel looked up at her wolf twin; he appeared to be deep in thought judging by his expression. Probably still worrying she thought.

“Dipper, do you have anything still on your mind?”

Dipper looked down and sighed, he eyed to his left and made an uneasy whine, he pressed his paw hand into her back in stress.

“Yeah…hey Mabel? Wh-what happens if I do lose control again…and anyone’s around…” he stammered nervously.

“Don’t worry; if it happens again, I’m sure we’ll get through it…” she told him soothingly.

“I hope so…but even then I can’t help but worry about it still…”

Mabel huffed glumly.

“What is it? If you got anything else on your mind just share it Dipper.” She told him calmly.

“If I bite someone, I’m worried if I curse someone else…I don’t want to spread the curse to anyone else…”

“We’ll be prepared for that by then, I’m sure there’s a cure for you out there!”

“Hopefully…” he whined softly.

“We got our Grunkles, Soos and Wendy to help us out! And I’m sure Ford will be back in time.”

Dipper only responded with an uneasy whine

“Dipper, come on…”

Mabel hugged him tighter.

“Let’s just finally relax for now.” She responded gently as she stroked his arm.

“Y-y-yeah, that sounds nice right now…I’ll try...” Dipper responded with uncertainty, a whine was heard at the end of his words.

His ears twitched and he looked around anxiously.

“Oh lighten up you cute werepup!”

“Werepup? Cute?” Dipper gave her a scowl.

 “Oh don’t be like that, that’s a compliment Dipper! At least you’re an adorable werewolf.” She patted his cheek, Dipper showed a little bit of his teeth in a sheepish fashion. He leaned his head back from her and made a nervous growl.

“Uh, well I-I don’t I qualify as cute after what I did, and werewolves aren’t normally cute.” His tone low and awkward sounding.

 “Too bad bro, looks like you’re stuck being cute in any form.” She chuckled.

Dipper groaned at her, despite his vexed expression, Mabel could tell he was trying to hide an

embarrassed smile.

“Besides, when you are yourself, you’re more cuddly than scary!”

His expression eased up and his arm wrapped around her tighter, Mabel winced slightly in response. His perked ears flattened and his expression was distressed. He removed his shaggy arm from her quickly in a panic.

“Oh no, sorry, did I hurt you? I’m not hurting you am I?” he asked worriedly.

He drew his fingers back; Mabel just huddled up in his fur again, her face beaming.

“Oh don’t freak out, I felt something sharp and I got spooked that’s all. You did press my back a little hard though but again you didn’t hurt me!”

“Oh Sorry, I th-think those were my claws! I didn’t mean too, I’m trying to be careful…”

“Dipper I’m fine, please don’t melt down again.”  

“I’m not going to; I just got a little surprised.”

Mabel gave a small nervous giggle, and moved a little bit away from Dipper.

“Well relax then, you’re paying attention to what you are doing around me aren’t you? You don’t need worry about that.”

“Yeah, I guess I’m still a bit freaked from earlier.”

“Well even then you shouldn’t be upset over something minor.”

“No, I was kinda worried it wasn’t something minor, like I cut you again or broke a bone.”

“From that gentle hug?”

“Well hey, I don’t know how strong I am; I’m still learning how to use this form… I’m not used to this new body yet…” Dipper moved his clawed fingers, looking at them thoughtfully in a glum manner. His ears flicked in response to his emotional strain.

“Right now… I don’t feel really confident in this form.” He muttered to himself.

Mabel frowned at this; she knew it be awhile before Dipper would accept himself.

She exhaled and put on a warm smile once again for him.

“Here, let me help you gain some more confidence.”

Mabel grabbed his left hand paw carefully, his padded palm and fingers weren’t that rough; though Dipper seemed reluctant to let her hold it as his paw hand was loose and did not grip hers back.

Dipper’s right ear perked in puzzlement.

“What are you doing?”

“You afraid you’re gonna hurt me still?” she coaxed him.

Dipper looked her hand and realized what she was trying to do, he gripped it gently.

He turned to her quizzically and she smiled back him as she stroked his furry hand.

“See? You’re not hurting me!”

Dipper gave her an uncomfortable look and recoiled.

“Ok, I see what you’re trying to do…but why are you stroking my hand?”

“Because your fur so soft! Like really soft; softer than soft!” Mabel let go of his hand and snuggled in his furry chest again, giggling. “But your head and body is much softer than your hands fur, way more fluff!”

“Obviously…” Dipper muttered with sarcasm, smirking at her.

“You’re pretty careful with me; you don’t have worry about causing accidents.”

“Still, better safe than sorry, I don’t want to get too rough around others and cause an accident...”

“You’re so paranoid…” she huffed as she scratched his chest, feeling a little frustrated.

Dipper eyed her with a troubled scowl.

“Well, let’s move on to the next thing about you, your fur.”

“Mabel you just covered that.”

“I only covered how soft it is; I still have more things to cover about it…like how amazing it is and how much I love to snuggle in it!”

Mabel rolled around in his fluffy chest; she rubbed and buried her face within his fur, laughing. She flashed her braces as a large smile appeared on her face. She rubbed her hands across his shaggy body, scratching and petting him in a playful way. She made some odd happy noises as she messed his fur, she snorted and giggled as well.

In short, she made her point about liking his fur pretty well.

Dipper cringed at this.

“Uh Mabel…”

Dipper felt himself go stiff, feeling embarrassed by her show of affection; he gave her a disturbed look. Something was just off putting about this.

“Ok, uh honestly Mabel, this feels weird and it’s really creeping me out.”

“Why is that?”

“Well because this feels wrong.”

“What’s wrong with being pet-able and cuddly?”

“It’s when you break it down; I’m not really- I mean technically a wolf. I mean I’m not a regular wolf; I’m a werewolf, which is just mostly wolf with some human traits; a wolf monster creature basically.”

“Yeah? What are you saying?” Mabel asked puzzled. “And don’t call yourself that.”

Dipper looked away sheepishly for a moment and turned back to her.

“Because when you think about it, you’re petting me and touching me like a pet dog. Yet by day, and hopefully next morning, I’m human. Don’t you think it’s kind of strange? You’re basically petting me, your brother. Like try to imagine doing all this to me when I’m human-”

Mabel grabbed his snout and held it shut, giving him an annoyed expression. Dipper’s eyes grew big.

“Shush, you’re a wolf right now, it’s ok to do petting and cuddling, don’t put those weird thoughts in my head and ruin the moment.” Mabel told him, her tone slightly irritated. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, she sighed, her face reforming her frown into a smile. “Anyway I just pat your head and hug you like I usually do when you’re normal.” She removed her hand from his a muzzle, dipper snorted and sneezed when she freed his mouth; he rubbed his nose with his shaggy arm. He gave Mabel an irritated expression himself.

“Besides would you rather have all this Mabel love or have a mob after ya?”

Dipper remained silent; his scowl faded from his muzzle, his ears drooped slightly. He looked rather hurt from her question. He whimpered softly and lowered his head.

Mabel smile faded in surprise; apparently she hit a rather sore spot.

“Dipper, I was just using an example, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.” She patted his muzzle. “Come on cheer up, that won’t happen.” She stroked his neck softly calmingly. “Don’t worry…”

Dipper eyed her and gave her a tiny smile.

“I know you didn’t mean to. I was just thinking about what you said.”

“So you got something new to worry about now?” she asked sadly.

“No, I’m fine; I just have to stay here during nightfall.” He gave a nervous laugh.

“Heh…aww.” Mabel rubbed her face against his snout.

Dipper stared at her, amused. He slowly closed his eyes in relaxation. He felt Mabel’s hand go across his face. Honestly being petted felt nice in this form, some strange soft light growls came from him, he felt a little startled from this but his relaxed body and thoughts told him he was in no danger of losing control right now.

“Are you purring?” Mabel asked, giggling.

“Wolves don’t purr Mabel.” Dipper responded, laughing quietly.

“You sound like you’re trying to.”

“I’m just feeling pretty chill and those sounds come out of me, I’m not making those on purpose.” Dipper felt like he was going to fall asleep.

“Oh my gosh!”

“What is it?” Dipper asked calmly.

“Aww, the fur around your eyes are stained.”

“What?” Dipper opened his eyes.

“It’s still a bit wet…”Mabel thumbed the corner of his eyes. “You have wet darker streaks of fur going down your face, from your tears earlier.”

“Really?”

Mabel smiled sweetly, wiping his wet marks, she giggled to herself.

 “Yeah, it looks really cute for a werewolf. Don’t worry bro bro, cheer up things are gonna be ok.”

“For now at least.”  He had a tiny unsure frown.

She scowled slightly.

“Stop being Mr. Negative.”

“I’m trying…”

She patted his muzzle affectionately and Dipper’s lips curled slightly. She scratched his snout happily, laughing. Dipper flinched back in surprise a little, a smile once again appeared on his muzzle and he nuzzled her hand.

“Sorry…”

“It’s ok; I guess Mabel needs to use more of her “healing magic” to cheer you up more!”

Dipper gave her an amused look and quietly mouthed “healing magic?” he snickered.

She scratched his chest quickly; Dipper chuckled and panted, trying to lean away from Mabel’s hand in different directions as he sat in place.

“H-Hey stop that!” he laughed with a slight snarl, showing toothy grin

“I will when you’re human again.” she giggled

“That’s a lie and we both know it!” he tried playfully shoving her away, rather carefully though.

“You got me bro bro, I’ll just tickle ya instead, not as good as werewolf petting though. So don’t expect any change in the usual amount of tickles you get.”

“You sound like a business woman.” Dipper snickered.

“I’m the tough business woman of order, management, happiness and fun.” She boasted with a smug expression.

Dipper had a humored look and nudged her right shoulder with his snout playfully, snorting. She attempted to grab his nose in response, but he moved his head away in time and showed his teeth in a non-threatening manner, looking a little smug.

Mabel placed both hands on his cheeks, scratching them cheerfully. During this, Mabel could not help but notice Dipper’s tail; it was wagging happily so fast he was dusting the floor. A large grin formed and she snickered.

“Heheh, you’re wagging pretty fast there Dipper, you a happy puppy?”

“Excuse me?” Dipper sounded like he was caught by surprise.

“Look at your tail; look how cute it is wagging so fast!" she giggled. "You didn't notice?"

"Wha-"

Dipper turned around looking away from her, and sure enough, his tail was sweeping the floor.

Dipper ears flattened against his head, he was mortified.

It was strange to feel his new limb move; he wasn’t quite comfortable with it. His tail seemed to have a mind of its own, try as he may he could not get it stop wagging on its own, though it did slow down a little.

He grabbed it, trying to keep it still but only to some effect, the tip of his tail twitched freely. He scowled at it and gave a small frustrated growl.

Mabel laughed his attempt.

“Oh don’t get embarrassed Dipper I think it’s cute for a werewolf to wag!”

“It feel’s weird…”

“You’ll get used to it!” she patted him.

Dipper stayed silent as he stared at his twitching tail, his eyes narrowing. His scowl faded, looking sad, curious and a little bit disturbed. He let go of his tail and looked at both of his hands, staring at his padded palms and fingers. He moved his fingers slightly.

Mabel smile faded, concerned about Dipper’s silence.

“What’s bothering you now?” Mabel asked with concern and curiosity.

Dipper stayed silent as he studied his hands, not giving her eye contact

“Dipper?”

He sighed through his nose.

“Mabel I...I want to see my reflection; I want to see how I look.” He spoke quietly.

“You don’t look that bad…”

“I don’t mean it like that…I mean how much did I change?”

“I though you knew.”

“I know but I want a much better look at my new form myself.”

“Well…I think there’s a mirror underneath sheet over there…” Mabel pointed the large covered object against the wall.

His ears twitched in response; Dipper slowly and rather clumsily rose to two legs; he stumbled a bit forward and trembled as he tried to find his balance; taking a few careful steps, but it felt so strange. He got it right earlier before, he should be able to do it again, though he was out of control most of those times he stood. Maybe it’s because of the fact he was feeling self-conscious at the moment?

Dipper held still for a moment after achieving balance, as he realized it felt sort of strange to stand on two legs as a wolf, mainly because his legs were reshaped.

He was forced to stand on the ball of his feet which were paws now, his knees dipped slightly because of this, giving him the feeling like was going to fall over forward. His heels were stuck in the air, and they were going to stay like that until he returned to human form.

His paws and legs looked strong, but slender. He tried to move the now dew claw fifth toe but found it way too weird and stopped.

 He lowered himself on fours like an animal; it felt rather natural for his body, though really weird. He felt little hunched and walked in circles a few times, it felt just as awkward as walking on two legs, though it was just a bit easier to move this way.

“Man walking in either way just feels weird.” Dipper said, rubbing his left paw against his right one, no it still felt way too weird to feel that dew claw up the leg.

He stood back on twos, as he noticed, no matter how he stood; his tail only slightly touched the floor.

Dipper turned himself to the large covered object and approached it slowly and carefully. He stared at it for a few seconds, his ears flattening in anxiety. His arm slowly out stretched to the cloth, his claws lightly touching it.

“Well, go on, you don’t have to be so over dramatic about it.”

“Alright!” he responded in a quiet annoyed tone.

He removed the sheet, and was met with what he expected.

He was a large brown werewolf, looking completely animal save for his hands. He didn’t go over the things he already had a good look at for long. The wolf legs, the large arms and hands, his chest the tail and shaggy brown fur he had covered earlier. But it did show him what he looked all together.

His arms didn’t look as bulky as he thought they were but still looked and felt strong, his legs and tail were pretty long looking and his tail really was quite bushy. His chest really was dome shaped, running his claws through it, it really was furry as it appeared.

His posture was slightly hunched.

He looked awkward standing on two legs now that he sees it…and he looked a bit intimidating.

He turned around in a circle once just to see his back; there wasn’t much to it other than is was just as shaggy as the rest of his body.

His head had changed completely; his ears were pointed and moving, he had a long muzzle and a black nose. No human traits remained on it, well that wasn’t completely true, he had a tuff of fur on the top of his head resembling his human hair, while the rest of it was now a part of his fur; his eyes  even remained there human color, brown.

 Dipper glared at the mirror, he snarled at his reflection, wanting to see his fangs; they were long, huge and razor sharp. He looked fearsome, the fur was even standing on his back, looking prickly.

He took a step back, looking hurt, his ears flattened.

He let out a soft whine as he sat down, still looking at his reflection.       

Mabel approached him sadly with a hand out.

“Dipper, you’re not that scary looking, come on…you don’t honestly think that do you?”

He sighed before answering.

“Well…maybe to others, but it’s not that, it’s something else…”

 “Well don’t worry, I think you’re wolf body is pretty cute.”

“It not how I look I swear…I still don’t see were you get the cute part from

“That’s just you, doom and gloom.”

“We’ll maybe that cute part is just you too.”

“Dipper…”

“Hey I’m not vain!”

“I know that but you seem pretty upset with how you look.”

“It’s not that, it’s…I don’t know…I just feel like I can’t recognize myself.”

“Dipper, it’s because, you think you look like a monster, huh?”

“No, it’s not that at all! I-I-I just don’t feel human anymore.”

“Mabel silently stared at him, Dipper sighed.

“I-I guess you’re right in a way Mabel…”

“Dipper come on, look at me.”

He slowly turned himself to face Mabel as she sat down.

“You have a lot of feelings about this curse stuff, I do too.”

“Yeah…can-can you use some of your “healing magic” again, I need it.”

“Of course! You don’t need to ask bro bro!” Mabel held his face and studied it, now after time has passed after he attacked her, she realized she wrong about Dipper’s wolf form earlier. He did have physical features left over from his true form, and he was very familiar looking since he regained control again.

Besides the tuff of fur on his head; Dipper’s eyes were brown and human, his true eye color, they remained inquisitive and tired; though probably even more than usual after tonight’s events. He actually looked very sweet and kind, he was very sincere; he honestly didn’t want to hurt anyone like this. And they were sorrowful and frightened, the poor thing, he was still very much hurting. She felt like she was seeing her real brother through them, the dorky, nerdy and paranoid Dipper in the body of a wolf; she heard of “eyes are the window to the soul” cliché sappy stuff before but here it was true, maybe for the better for both of their sake. Upon inspecting his eyes, she eventually noticed some slightly dark sunken areas around his eyes, his permanent eye bags. It looked odd for a wolf but still pretty cute looking for one.

So far he retained three features, all stood out and was recognizable; in fact his wolf form as a whole was becoming familiar to that of his human form, which that might be because of the fact she’s been around him long enough obviously.

She smiled in relief and stroked his head.

“What are you doing…come on, personal space, personal space!” Dipper cringed as he leaned back, shaking his head to get Mabel’s hands off his face.

She giggled in response.

“Inspecting you.”

“O…K… but this is really uncomfortable…you know you should be careful, I might bite your nose off…”

She moved back away from him a tiny bit, and sighed in bliss. She was quiet for a few seconds.

“Well…you act like yourself still, that’s an obvious thing…hehe.”

Dipper gave her an unamused glance.

“We established that a while ago, did you black out?” he said in a snarky tone.

“Be patient bro, don’t give me sass. I’m making a point, what I’m saying is you’re still you, but not just on the inside…”

His ears slightly rose.

“You have a large lump of brown fur on your head that resembles your human hair, and you have your brown eyes.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Your eyes show me the real you…”

“…Really, how?”

“Well…”she rubbed his head “For one they’re really human…and they show me that you’re kind, gentle and sweet…and that you’re a sad dorky nerd.” Dipper looked offended by that line and snorted, giving her a slight glare. She chuckled and scratched his right ear. “A sad dorky nerd who is in a lot of pain and needs a lot of comforting and TLC from the people who care for him."

“That’s so cheesy…”

“Well it needed to be said.”

He smiled

“Thanks”

“Your eyes also show you are very innocent, harmless and cute.”

Dipper chuckled.

“Come on, that’s not completely true, and I’m not cute.”

“You are to me, dip dop.” She giggled.

“Dip dop?”

“That’s not all; you still have your dark permanent eye bags.”

“I do?” Dipper looked back at the mirror and carefully rubbed under his eyes. “Oh yeah you’re right. They’re still there, not as easy to see in this form though.” He turned back to Mabel. “So I guess I have like three human features left over.”

“Yeah, that’s good right?”

“Yeah, I guess it is.” Dipper said calmly.

He lowered himself and crawled near her, lying on the floor now like a dog; he placed his head in her lap tiredly and curled up slightly. Mabel smiled, stroking the fur on his head and neck gently, Dipper let out a soft whine, but it sounded relaxed than sad.

“Yeah…you’ll always be Dipper, you’ll always be you and my brother, werewolf or human.” She hugged his neck “I feel like we keep going in circles about the problems you have with your werewolf form, I’m sure we had this conversation earlier.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s a different part of the same issue.” Dipper replied.

“We spoke about you not being a monster earlier and we just did again a minute ago.”

“No, we spoke about me being dangerous or not, how I’m not confident how careful I’ll be and me no longer feeling I’m myself.”

 “Really, I swear we repeated something…they’re all starting to blend together…”Mabel chuckled. “The cycle will never end. Speaking of…You feeling a bit better about your curse? Feeling a bit more confident or do you have more issues to talk about?”

“Yeah just a bit, just so-so, I feel a bit more in control…still need more time to calm down...honestly I’m out of things to speak about…” He moved his muzzle closer to her stomach and sighed through his nose.

“I just want to lie down and feel comfortable…or something else…”

“Yeah…same, I just want to snuggle you and sleep after tonight.”

She lifted Dipper’s head and rubbed her face against his forehead.

The two stayed still in silence, having their moment of peace.

The moment was cut short when loud knocking was heard against the bedroom door.

“Mabel, Mabel?”  It was Soos. “Mabel are you alive still? I know I promised to let you handled Dipper yourself and wait until you call for help. But I heard, growling and screaming a while ago, though you sound ok now…but are you actually ok?”

“A bit late aren’t you?” Dipper said with irritated sarcasm.

Mabel glared at him.

“Hush, he was respecting my wishes.”

“I know but still…”

“Shh…” She raised her voice “I’m alright Soos, I’m not hurt and everything’s under control!”

“Speaking of that, I can control myself, so she’s alright with me!” Dipper moved his head slightly and whispered “For now…”

“Bro Bro!” she scowled at him.

Soos stayed quiet for a moment.

“…Mabel, are you sure everything ok in there? I don’t hear Dipper.”

Dipper tilted his head in confusion; he heard a quiet “aww” from Mabel.

“Soos everything is ok right now!”

“…I hear growling in there, he’s not out of control is he?”

“Soos It’s me Dipper! I can control my wolf form, it’s alright!”

“…Mabel? What’s wrong with Dipper, he keeps snarling.”

Dipper gave Mabel a hurt and worried expression, he whined. Can…can he not understand him? Mabel gave him a sad look of sympathy and looked at the door.

“Soos, I promise I’m ok! And Dipper’s says he can control himself, he’s safe.”

“Really? Why didn’t he say so?”

“He did…” he tone faltering, realizing what was going on.

“Oh…well I guess I can’t understand him like you can…Hey you dudes gonna come out yet?”

Dipper whispered in her ear and Mabel yelled out again.

“In a while, we need some more time to rest…”

“Alright then, see you later, and stay cool Hambone.” He said before going back down stairs.

Dipper sighed and looked at Mabel sadly.

“So I guess only you can understand me so far…”Dipper muttered.

“That’s what it looks like right now…”she stroked his ears. “Hey…hey cheer up, I got your back, I can be your translator, it’s not that bad, I mean I’m gonna be with you through this.” She whispered calmly.

She let out a loud gasp.

“Wh-What is it?” Dipper’s head and ears perked, he looked around in surprise.

Mabel chuckled at this.

“You’re so cute like this…”

“Oh…”Dipper lowered his head in annoyance.

“No no, that’s not it, I just realized, what if the reason I can understand you is because of a twin thing?”

“What?”

“No really, sometimes there’s these stories that twins have a special connection, between each other, like feeling each other’s pain or sensing something wrong with the other even though you’re far away and other weird cool stuff.”

Dipper gave her a strange look.

“What if ours is me being able to understand you as a werewolf?” she asked happily.

“That’s…oddly specific.”

“I know but doesn’t that sound cool? We have a twin power! Twin power, Twin power!” she chanted.

“Well, at least you can still understand me.”

“Yeah twin power saves the day hehe…”

Dipper rolled his eyes and curled up a little more.

“Yeah heh heh…Hey…hey Dipper, it’s all ok…hey…Don’t you wanna go downstairs? Soos is still pretty worried and Wendy might be here now. You can’t just stay up here cooped up.”

“I don’t know; I don’t want to show myself to them yet…not tonight…maybe later or tomorrow. I’m really tired after tonight’s events…I just want a break…from everything…it’s been a long night…I just want to relax and sleep.” He said quietly as his head sank into her lap.

“I understand…” she said quietly as she smiled.

She paused for a moment.

"Wait...I just realized, we forgot to check something.”

“What is it now?”

Mabel stroked his forehead slowly and lifted the tuff of fur.

“It’s still there…

“My birthmark?”

“Yeah, look in the mirror.”

Dipper lifted himself up and looked at his reflection once again; the constellation of the big Dipper remained on his head, hidden. Dipper lied down again and curled up.

“It really is…guess I’m not getting rid of it huh?” he chuckled tiredly.

Mabel giggled and lied down on him on his torso like a pillow, snuggling in his fur.

“Nope…you see? It’s another sign that you will always be Dipper, no matter what you turn into.”

“Mabel…thank you…for everything tonight…”

Mabel smiled.

“No problem, well stay together during this right?”

“Yeah…thick and thin…”

Mabel smiled and curled near his head, snuggling against it.

“You don’t mind if I use you like a pillow right?”

“Not at all, I hardly noticed it…it actually feels kinda nice…”

He rubbed his snout gently against her head, his tail slowly wagging.

She giggled, feeling safe with the werewolf brother.

“You goofball…rest easy Dipper…”

 

           The twins relaxed in their spots, the cool night air soothing the both of them. Dipper rubbed his snout steadily against her, comforting her; the wolf boy smiled as he closed his eyes, for the first time since the attack he found peace with himself. He sniffed Mabel’s crusty hand, still healing from his accident earlier that night; hopefully it would be much better in the morning. He nudged it and then placed his head closer to her.

Mabel giggled as she felt his cold nose.

Maybe…maybe things will be ok after all he thought. He whined in relaxation and his tail slowly wagged.

His ears twitched, listening for any sort of interesting or threatening sound. 

His rest might be temporary, he thought, as Soos might wake them later trying to check to see that Mabel wasn’t wolf chow.

But for now, he wanted to enjoy their moment of peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the opening for now! I hope you don't mind later sections being posted out of order, but they'll be listed when it takes place. They'll still under the Night Shift title!
> 
> Please leave a review or comment.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time on Ao3, so I'm a bit nervous but I hope you enjoy.
> 
> The first 6 ch will cover the beginning and later chapters cover certain parts of the story(don't worry, It's how I write and it's not hard to follow.)


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